Questions about Canada!!

[NameChangeLifeChange]

Please could anyone with expedience answer me a few questions!

1. What would be considered a ‘decent’ salary? DH on £65k in uk, Canada looks around $100-110k (in BC)- would this afford us a good lifestyle? I would work too expected income $75k
2. Is the schooling system more similar to UK or US in terms of school hours, long summer holidays etc?
3. Is it relatively easy to integrate as a British ex pat? We would avoid french speaking cities only because we don’t speak French (I would make the effort to learn if we moved to Canada generally) but I understand in those areas you are expected to speak French
4. If you are eligible for a visa via the skilled worker programme do you need a set amount of money in savings? DH and I both come under this criteria but due to recent house purchase have v little in savings currently.
5. Any advice generally about quality of life in BC?

thank you!

Bump

The British Expats website might be able to help with your questions: britishexpats.com/forum/canada-56/

BC is a million miles away from the French speaking part of Canada. You will not need to make any effort to learn French if you lived in BC. Seriously. You'd be better off learning Mandarin or Punjabi (or similar languages) since there is a huge Asian population there. It's a very diverse province. But with very little French. It's like the equivalent of assuming you will need to learn Welsh if you moved from Canada to London.

School system more similar to US than UK. Kids start in the year they turn 7 iirc. Longer summer hols June-end of August.

Easy to integrate as long as you like maple syrup baked beans. They love a Brit accent. Lovely friendly people.

Food is very expensive. If you think the prices here have got out of control wait until you get there! Box of cereal was $10 and that was 15 years ago. Meat as well was really expensive.

House prices in BC very expensive too. I always wanted to move to Kamloops but we were stuck in Manitoba!

We went over on a work visa and didn’t need savings although we sold our house before we went so we could buy over there. DH had already been over for interviews and had a job to go to, this was before remote interviews. You do your own tax returns and health care is free although a lot of companies offer additional heath insurance. We used to go to a chiropractor regularly, even DC. Dental, glasses and prescriptions are not free for DC.

You need to do a field trip before you make plans.

That’s just what I remember as we came back after 2 years. Wished we’d stayed now though.

I can answer a few of your questions but I can only speak from my own experience. I moved here around 15yrs ago. Live in BC

We have a joint salary of around $130k. Our mortgage is around $3,000 a month. 4 bed detached house with some land but around a 1hr commute into the City. We do ok but once the essentials are paid, we don't have much left over for extras. Average house price where I am is around $1-1.5 million for a single-family home.
School system is very oversubscribed, if you're lucky you will get into your catchment school.
Summer holidays are long. Usually break up last week of June- 1st week of September (1st Tuesday after Labor Day long weekend) 2 weeks around march for spring break & 2 weeks at Christmas.

Health care very over stretched. Getting a family Dr is near impossible. My nearest walk-in clinic is 45mins away and i would have to be lined up by 6am to have any chance of being seen.

French not required but always useful especially if you plan to get a government job.
I can't answer the visa/ savings question as we came over sponsored my my husband's job

Life is good, lots of outdoorsy stuff to do. Canadians are generally friendly (but very passive aggressive)

Yeah, food is pretty expensive but not quite as much as above poster remembers. My weekly shop for 5 people is around $300. A box of cereal is about $6. A pack of 4 chicken breasts around $12-$14. If you want something from home is readily available but it will cost, you. I was sick last week & shelled out $14 for a bottle of Ribena!!!

Wow that is expensive! Thanks for the helpful replies. On the back of your helpful post @Onesailwait a combined income of £180k would be reasonable for a family of 4? We have looked at BC primarily but also Alberta as there are loads of jobs in my field there.

Currently in BC and shall answer what I can....
1 - Earning $175k between you both will be plenty to live comfortably, depending on where you want to live. We live a 40 minute drive from downtown Vancouver and we survive on around $90k. However, we don't have expensive hobbies like skiing etc and we only run one car with no car payments etc.
Food, car insurance and phone contracts are all stand out more expensive than the UK.

2 - School system is different. Children start the September of the year they turn 5, so all kids who were born in 2017 started this September just gone. They also don't have as high expectations of the young ones and from our experience it starts to level off by Grade 5/6. We came having had our first child complete R-year 3 in the UK and our second has just started Grade 3 and he is not at the level our first born was at at the same point. However, having seen our eldest now reach Grade 6 I don't have any major concerns.
Summer breaks are 10 weeks but you adjust and I can't imagine only having 5/6 weeks now. It makes the autumn term long as the kids go straight from September through to December with only a few long weekends for breaks.

3 - We have integrated really well. Again, this may depend on where you settle. There are areas around where we are that are predominantly of certain backgrounds, e.g. South Asian etc and these would be harder to settle in as some neighbourhoods can be very culturally driven. This isn't exclusive so just do your research before deciding where to live.
West coast is not really french speaking. There is french on the signs and on labels but no one I have met really speaks french. They learnt it at school like some of us British kids do but nothing more than that.

4 - I can't answer this as we came in on a Religious Worker Work Permit which then allowed me as the spouse to have an open Work Permit. We didn't have to have any savings, we just needed a job to come to, which we did!

5 - We enjoy our life here. We like the open spaces and the access to beautiful outdoor experiences. There are always pros and cons to all countries so don't move to run away from the UK. Do we have a better quality of life? I don't know whether we do but we love it out here.
You also need to be aware that jobs offer far less annual leave - we get three weeks and that is generous. However, there is a long weekend nearly every month and people take full use of their weekends. Work days also generally finish a little earlier, it's more a 8-4 day with some variation.
We like the more defined seasons, i.e. hotter, more consistent summers and snow in winter (although the snow isn't consistent where we are, we just happened to have a good couple of years!)

Feel free to ask anything else.

@ElCaMum that is so helpful thank you for that in depth response!
In terms of location we aren’t set on anywhere particularly and obviously would rather go to a nice town where our money goes further. Vancouver we loved when we visited but actually being within an hour to visit but somewhere more affordable makes more sense. Do you have any towns particularly you would recommend within an hour of Vancouver to focus our search on?
Google has been great but it’s so hard to pinpoint where we would go and once we know that it will make job hunting much easier as we can work out commutes etc!
Interesting about small amounts of A/L- presumably there are lots of holiday clubs etc for the kids in that case? Are they fairly reasonably priced?

Yes, I think you could live very nicely on that salary. BC Is very beautiful. I'm on the Island but have friends who live on the mainland in Kelowna & they love it there. I can't give any insight into Alberta, but I know Calgary is frequently rated as the best place for families. (I am very aware i may come across a bit negative about the place. It's because even after all these years I am so homesick & would give anything to go home. My husband & kids love it here)

@NameChangeLifeChange there are plenty of nice areas within an hour and a few that are just over an hour from Vancouver. South Surrey/White Rock, Cloverdale and Langley have nice areas and within easy reach and have more city/town feel. Maple Ridge has a more remote feel but you can also access things easily. Slightly further out there is Abbotsford and Chilliwack but you probably wouldn't want to be commuting into Vancouver from there. They are also slightly cheaper.
Holiday clubs are very available but can cost. The local recreation centres have more affordable holiday clubs but you have to jump on them when they release the dates. However, when using them for childcare you can claim them back when you submit your tax return.
I don't know if you are aware but everyone has to do a tax return each year as they take it all at source and then if you qualify for a refund you will get it given every year after submitting on your return. You can claim for things like childcare, medical expenses, charitable giving etc.
Make sure whoever your employer has gives you a good benefits package for health care and dental. Direct access to healthcare is free, e.g. visits to the ER, to see a GP, referral to specialists etc. However, you need to pay for physiotherapy, prescriptions, eye care, ambulance, all dentistry including kids so most benefit packages will pay about 80% of the cost. We have found that accessing these services has been easier than in the UK because there are lots of practices around.

I am following this with interest, as we are seriously considering a family (of 4) move to BC. My OH has work prospects over there and we have been looking at the Kamloops area and north to Clearwater as this is around where much of the work is with the company he has been in contact with, although that could change depending on the company he worked for. He works in forestry hence no requirement to commute to Vancouver or contend with the house prices there thank goodness!!

Between him and I we would expect to earn around $140-150k and have been trying to look into whether that would be enough for a good standard of living. That figure is based on me working part time so I guess it could be increased if need be with more hours. Planning a field trip in the spring to check everything out, but any useful info shared here would be great.

@ElCaMum could you give an idea of Port Moody or Coquitlam as areas to live in please?

I had heard through work colleagues that Surrey wasn't the best of areas to live in, and the school ratings indicate the best areas (like in the UK i suppose), is that true?

@TeaAddict235 there are definitely parts of Surrey that are not great areas to live (it’s a huge city!) We live in Surrey but we live in the South Surrey neighborhood which is a very nice area and close to the beach and highways etc so, like most places, you can’t blanket describe places. Clayton Heights, Coverdale and Fleetwood are also good neighbourhoods.
Port Moody and Coquitlam are smaller cities and have less trouble spots I guess. I’m not as familiar with these cities so couldn’t recommend any of the particular neighbourhoods. They are closer to the mountains and depending on where you live the commute to Vancouver is reasonable. Although our drive is similar to if you lived in Coquitlam.
Are you thinking of coming out to check the area out because that is definitely worth your time if you can? The neighbourhoods all have their own feel and different pros and cons.
School ratings do indicate the state of an area to an extent but with all the same cautions you would put in place when looking in the UK!

Bless you @ElCaMum and thank you for being level headed about it all. I hope that I didn't offend you about your area. We are currently on a look and see, and are open to everywhere that allows initially for DH to get to the airport region within 45 mins and allows for the kids to be at great schools. DH has info from his colleagues and the relocation company is being helpful but rather allowing us to lead them. It's the blind leading the blind (autocorrect wanted to write blonde instead of blind!).

Should we be paying significant attention to the Fraser Institute website or not really? It still only has data from 2019.

Fraser Institute numbers are pretty much a proxy for SES.

What is SES @UKsounding ?

SES = Social economic status - basically much money is coming into a household.

As in the UK, house prices are higher in the catchment areas of perceived “good” schools and there is generally a positive correction between family wealth and academic achievement.