Maybe you should post the amount you expect to spend on housing and then you'll have an idea of where you could live. Some cities are uh, ahem... slightly over-priced.

dvkk, funny you should mention the hockey as honestly after my own Aussie Rules and Rugby games here; your hockey has got to be the toughest sport there is. In a world obsessed with pussification of team sport in order protect us, there's few games left out there that do my biscuit. There is no question I'd learn to love the hockey :D

PBH, we current own a home worth around $800k Aussie - we loose a little in the conversion to around $700k CAN. Everything else such as incomes, consumables etc... seem to be similar. It would seem that your houses are rough equivalent (dollar wise) to ours. Obviously a lot would hinge on the kind of employent we got - and I don't kid myself that I'd have to start down near the bottom again :)

I really do come from the sunniest part of Australia (Queensland) with an average temperature of 23c all year (peaks at 40c in summer and goes down to a chilly 11-12c in winter :) ) But I love the cold and snow whenever we visit other places, and I'm a keen snowboarder. Though I know it would be different living in it half of the year or more. I guess I could swap my dirt bike and jetski for a snow mobile...

We're moving a little ahead with the idea, having downloaded all the documentation and speaking with a few people we know that have lived there. Regardless, there is about an 18 month wait once the application goes in.

Hi John:

Don't know if your a bio or are on the enforcement side, but here are a few. Jobs keep coming up.

http://www.pao.gov.ab.ca/jobs/jobslisting.htm?catChkbx=61&allLocation=on&ShowOpe n=1&ShowLimited=1&fromPostDate=dd%2Fmm%2Fyyyy&toPo stDate=dd%2Fmm%2Fyyyy&fromExpiryDate=dd%2Fmm%2Fyyy y&toExpiryDate=dd%2Fmm%2Fyyyy

There may be some info here too:

http://www.pao.gov.ab.ca/jobs/index.html

PM me if you want and I can give you a few contact names.

Tim

where to live....well it's -37C here right now... :) So choose where your going to live and work carefully.

Buy a couple Mokes and bring them over with you. You can sell them and make enough to buy a nice P car when you get here (where ever you end up)

John my son went to Canada for 3 months 6 years ago it must have something going for it. He was pi***d off when he was living in one state and working in another and had to pay a second tax. I am not too sure but I think he was living in Quebec and working in Ontario. He fixed it up by moving.If you get a work permit ( which can be done from oz) and you like the place apply for permanent residency it will take about 18 months to come through.
He is in to skiing but has told me it can get too cold to ski. He lives in Ottawa.
Good luck if you decide to move.
Richard.

Thanks for the links Tim. I'm a former police officer with a marine bio degree... Compliance and enforcement are my main skills as I never really got into the research side of things... I currently manage an environmental regulatory enforcement team. We're a 'flying squad' that specialise in quick response investigations (to hose down problems before the media blow them up ;) ) When I first joined Pelican I was a fisheries investigator - hence 'Fishcop' :)

Really, Mokes are worth something? :D

Richard, it's a common story I've heard about the place. My brother visited a few years ago and stayed 2 years.

Hey Fishcop, where in BrisVegas do you live? I did my Masters over there, lived right in the city, it was great. Saw some good car clubs over on SouthBank, enjoyed that casino, it was a pretty nice place. Definitely appreciated the weather, when I was there winter was a nice 23C, and summer was 32C. Quite sensible. The only bad thing was that I met my wife there....

I'm a little biased, but the okanagan valley in B.C. is pretty nice. do a search on the cities of penticton and kelowna. lots of good roads with little traffic, a big lake for watersports, lots of skihills for winter, booming economy, spectacular local wine industry. downside, housing prices are getting up there. but you gotta figure there's a reason for that. it's a nice place to live.
http://www.penticton.ca/gallery/default.asp
some good categorized pics here
http://www.tourismkelowna.com/visitors/photogallery/activities.php
general pics from a photo contest
http://www.rdos.bc.ca/index.php?id=455


I also have a couple of friends who work in the local fish hatchery if you wanted to talk to someone about job opps in that area. B.C. has the country's most progressive gov't fisheries. B.C. is second only to california in environmental regulations/enforcement. something more in line with your current career.
http://www.gofishbc.com/
regards, Don.

I very close to the city in Windsor (about 4km to the north), I take the train to work and usually run home. How long since you were here? And meeting your wife was a bad thing... or is she now your ex-wife :D I don't mind saying I love Brisbane (and Australia), but we're just looking for that next big adventure.

I got tied up in my career early on and never did the "see the world" via back-pack when I should have. We're at a point where if we don't make an effort now we never will.

Thanks for the links Don. My skills these days really lie towards investigation of critical environmental threats such as spills, waste stream contamination, and fraud. That's where I'd love to stay - but would be more than happy to step back a little and do some basic regulatory and inspectorial jobs - although I promised my wife I wouldn't go back to police work. The reason Canada is so appealing is that the same issues threaten your country and the Westminster/Colonial system of government and law making is pretty much the same as here; this should mean I can re-learn rapidly.

Here we don't consider a "sport" a sport if you can run out of bounds......

BC sounds like the place for you with the skills you bring to the table. Employment would not be a problem.

Cheers

I would agree with your skills I think there are more oppurtunities in your field on the west coast. Plus the snowboarding is to die for.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll keep researching!

I don't know about west coast - I took this shot over my morning coffee. Stanley Park, north shore mountains (Grouse Mountain up there) at 9:00 AM.

Who can stand Vancouver winters like that? I mean sure, the grass stays green - but the TREES HAVE NO LEAVES! See all those ugly bare sticks in amongst those cedars and pines?

Barbaric.

I was walking along English Bay on the weekend - the sun was shining nicely on the palm trees, but the off-shore wind was blowing them around - I bet it was only plus 6 or so with the windchill.

brrrr.....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1200935781.jpg

That would buy you a very nice house in 90% of the country, and something slightly bettter than adequate in about 95% of Canada.

I wouldn't worry about the housing side with that amount of money to spend.

Australia's realestate has just recently been assessed as some of the most expensive in the world (inc USA, Canada, UK, NZ and Sweden). Apparently affordability is accepted as a value not exceeding 3x average yearly income... The average Australian home is now 4-5x average yearly income, with some locations being 7x average yearly income :eek:

Stunning....

Here's an idea to give John a snapshot of Canada. How about everyone reading this topic give a soundoff stating Tuesday's high temp, and what the weather is doing, along with your city and province.

+4ºC & Sunny,
Vancouver BC

Ooh, this may hurt. currently -5C, snowing, high of -1, 3-4cm of snow throughout the day in Hamilton, ON (65 km west of Toronto, 100km NW of Buffalo NY).

That's better than the last few days' -12.

Edmonton: +30C and sunny. Thinking of golf this PM. Oh wait, that's for Cancun.

Tim

Typo >>> he meant -30C, colder with the wind chill. And even colder after 2PM when the sun goes down.