Canada 2012

[westcoastnortherner]

So I noticed that there is a thread for America 2012, and I thought it would be nice to have a Canadian one too. So we can chat or if anyone has any questions I'm sure someone will be able to help...

I moved to Victoria, BC three years ago I have two DC'S and I am a SAHM.

[nooka]

Oh, just thought of a question I can ask here. I'm just starting to think about the spring and wondered if any of you were gardeners at all, and in which case whether you could recommend a seed catalogue for fruit/vegetables. I need seeds for short season, so I'm thinking more Mountain/Prairies than West Coast.

[westcoastnortherner]

Nooka, i'm just starting to get into gardening! My crocus bulbs have started to flower so far this year, i've also planted tulips but apparently these are like candy for the deer.

Any advice on deer deterrant?

I'm not great as a source of advice sorry :(

[westcoastnortherner]

Well advice for gardening i might add lol

[nooka]

We had a whole load of snow on Thursday, so perhaps Spring isn't that close after all. I envy you having crocuses already! I have lots of tulips, they seem to do very well here. We do have a few deer that visit our neighbourhood (and some bears) but not enough that I've had to learn any deterrence tricks. Sorry!

[momnipotent]

Hi!

I'm in Southern Ontario where it is currently chucking it down with snow, and, very rarely, there is no wind so it is absolutely gorgeous! Took the dogs to the dog park this morning and they were loving it!

Bulk Barn often has a small selection of British chocolate. I can usually get some kind of fix from there. :)

[momnipotent]

I'm in the Georgian Triangle and we have about 10cm on the ground and it is still coming down hard!

[outofbodyexperience]

We had flurries this morning but it's just beautiful blue and snow capped mountains here now.
Can't help with the next thing, or the gardening I'm afraid. The joys of living in a tourist trap mean that we are limited to container gardening on the decks as we can't afford a yard! That's just as well, though, we do have a lot of elk etc, and where we were living before we could count about 60 gophers from the living room window as soon as the snow went... My yard then was like the Somme.... On balance I prefer it here!

What are your plans for family day weekend then? It's a holiday Monday here in Alberta (not sure about everywhere else?) and so we are playing happy families and going to the zoo tomorrow, and then snow tubing on Monday. That is... if the kids manage to tidy their rooms sufficiently today

Dh's second interview on Friday has been cancelled. Not sure why. so no mall trip for me... Probably just as well! So as he's already booked the day off on Friday I'm going to encourage him strongly to go and register his own consultancy business, as he's had a few people suggest that they could be putting ad hoc work his way if that was the case... It doesn't seem to cost too much to do, so probably worth having as a back-up anyway... (bit scary, but might be a last resort if nothing else comes off). Anyone set up their own business here?

[nooka]

We don't have Family day in BC yet. We get it next year. I expect everyone will go skiiing when it is brought in :)

Glad to hear that there is another evil room tidying mum out there! I'm always having to stand over dd to get here to reduce the pit like nature of her bedroom. I suggested bribery, and she thought it was a great idea, but it's not been successful in practice.

Not sure about consultancy here. I've a couple of friends who are consultants in the UK, and dh woudl like me to do it (once we get PR) but I'm not sure, it seems so precarious.

[momnipotent]

We have family day here in ON, no idea what I will be doing. DH works at a private ski club so he's basically not around any weekends or holidays during the winter.

I am a consultant here, although I actually only work for one company. Iirc, all I had to do was go to a Service Canada office and get a form to fill out to request a GST number, and I can't actually remember doing anything else! That was it - boom, I'm a business. That was 12 years and 4 kids ago so chances are I have forgotten stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if you could download the forms online now. It's been great in that I've been able to stay at home with the kids, but I also wasn't entitled to any mat leave at all and no paid holidays, no EI benefits either. If it all went pear-shaped tomorrow then we'd be up shit creek!

If he was working as a consultant would that involve him working from home or going to someone's place of business? If he works from home then he could claim all kinds of household stuff as business expenses. You need to have a dedicated work area, so my office is 1/20th of the house square footage, and I am able to claim 1/20th of mortgage interest, heating and hydro, all my internet since I work online, etc, etc.

I used to live in Edmonton! Long time ago now, I went to Uni there. I think it would actually be a pretty good place to raise kids.

[westcoastnortherner]

Off to pick up my Mum now!

[crazyforbaby]

Aww have a lovely time with her Westie!

[eternallyoptimistic]

We are going to ski tomorrow, nice to have Family Day off with the kids. We're just outside of Ottawa and it's been lovely and warm lately.

[nooka]

We took our children skiing today and the conditions were perfect, the best this season. Lovely powder and surprisingly not that many people, so virtually no lines (this is at a small family run resort, there is also an international quality one a bit further away). We didn't see very much of them all day :)

I hope you have great skiing on your day off

[Jacksmania]

Hello! I'm in the Lower Mainland of B.C. Langley specifically, about 45 mins east of Vancouver. Am originally from Toronto but moved out west 8 years ago.

[nooka]

Very wise too Jacksmama

[Jacksmania]

Clearly my most brilliant decision ever :o

[madwomanintheattic]

Thought I would bump the thread a bit

No job news here yet. Just finished tax filing for local not for profit though. Frankly terrified I have muffed it up, there's nothing quite like trying to work out payroll in a different country, and trying to understand the CRA makes we want to weep. Still, done now. Am sure we'll just a letter in the mail telling us we owe them more money, but worth a try, eh? Must get on and do my own tax return now I've got everyone else's t4s done...

Dd2 is getting fitted for AFOs on thurs (orthotics) so I'm still trying to wend my way around the medical system. Apparently we have to claim 75% of the cost through AADL, and the other 25% can be claimed through benefits, so we're trying to max out dh's whilst he's still got a job! I still can't get over how fast the referrals are in comparison with the nhs...

We are pondering whether to pop back to the uk for Easter. Had no plans at all until fil sent a message saying he was arranging a surprise party for mil's 70th. Are we completely crazy to be contemplating spending that much cash? There are 5 of us. How often do you all go back? We haven't been in nearly 3 years...

[nooka]

We went back last summer for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. First visit in three years, and they paid for us. The cost and hassle of travel to Europe is the major disadvantage of living in BC. Still not quite as expensive as for my sister in Australia.

I found tax returns hard enough in the UK, kudos to you for doing that. My dh is co-chair of our local PAC, so we are relatively community minded, but that sounds like quite a commitment.

We got acknowledgement of our PR application today (just four months after we sent it in...) it's nice to know it didn't get lost along the way :)

[madwomanintheattic]

Oo, that's exciting nooka. It's always nice to see the system ticking along. Should be quick ish for you? Are you applying CEC? We were right in the middle of the whole SAP debacle, so ours took nearly 4 years to do an application that now takes 6-12 mos. ah well, it all worked out in the end!

Dh is going to make a decision on the trip today. It's probably the only time in the foreseeable that we'd bother... And he's tempted because it means we could do all of his rellies on one swoop at the party and not have to spend the whole time driving to the four corners of the uk...

It's not smart timing though, money -wise.

[crazyforbaby]

You are sooo lucky Nooka! We are in Yr 2 of our PR application; mine is sponsored through work too (Skilled Worker).
Hey Mad, how's it going? Sounds as if you are giving the idea of this holiday some serious thought ...good luck with your decision. If it was me I'd say 'sod it, it's only money so let's go'... but that sort of attitude means that I am permanently broke!!!

[madwomanintheattic]

i'm surprised by how excited the possibility makes me, actually! it hadn't even crossed our minds that we'd be taking a trip back before next year, what with it being the Olympics this year etc etc. i think that's why it's so tempting, it came out of the blue and took us by surprise!

i'm very much of the 'sod it, it's only money' (and yes, permanently broke) mindset myself. it ties in with spring break, so i don't have to take the kids out of school, and mil would be thrilled beyond belief... (all i need is for a giant windfall so that i could do some uk shopping and i'd be on the plane... )

that said, i've spotted a job advert this morning that looks v tempting. i've not had any luck so far, but if i tweak everything i might get as far as an interview... that is, if they don't already have someone lined up. the job market here is very strange. i've had two interviews out of, ooooo, not sure how many applications. (the first job i applied for, they offered me, and... i turned it down. i am totally kicking myself now, of course. haven't worked in nearly a year since we moved to this town, and now of course, that's impacting as well...) this one though, looks like mat cover until september. and it would mean that i could do some work for dh if the consulting thing gets off the ground afterwards as it would brush off my skills... hmm...

[nooka]

Good luck with the job application. I was incredibly lucky in getting a job shortly after we arrived. Having come from the UK pubic sector I find it hard to adjust to the networking culture here so I can understand your frustration.

We should (barring anything going wrong) get PR in 10 months, so it's quite a long haul still, but maybe we'll get it by Christmas which would be nice :) We have BC sponsorship which means that unless our medicals are dodgy or I lose my job we shoudl be fine.

I can understand the temptation re the trip. We added a short European trip to our visit home last summer which in truth we couldn't afford, but the temptation was just too great really.

[momnipotent]

Just popping in! madwoman, I used to be the treasurer at our nursery school (also non-profit) in case you need any help with CRA. Haven't done it in a couple of years though. I'm self employed so I get an accountant to do our personal taxes!

We haven't been back to the UK for 9 years, and that was for a funeral. We keep planning to go, and then something always comes up that is a more pressing use for the money. There are 6 of us now too, which makes the flights horrifically expensive, but also means we have to rent at least one vehicle since nobody we know has a vehicle big enough for all of us, nobody we know has a house big enough for all of us to stay, plus add on the cost of putting the pets into boarding for a couple of weeks or whatever.... We had planned on going this year but then my 'job' (self employed but only do work for one company) took a nosedive and wiped out our savings trying to cover the shortfall. I really want to be able to take my kids as a family, they have never been except my oldest as a baby. I want to be able to show them the house I grew up in, where I went to school, etc. Sigh. Stupid money.