# Moving to Ontario...



## floyd1965 (Aug 6, 2012)

Hi Folks...

Hoping to get some advice.... Looking to head out to Ontario from Ireland.. later this year.. selling here and packing up everything..! 

My wife is a Canadian citizen through her mother and has sponsored myself and our 9 year son,, so we have to land before December 2014 to comply with Permanent residency.. i

Have been looking at the southwest of Toronto region,,, mainly London/St Thomas..mainly because we would like to buy outright.. ( in the region of $250,000) and looks like we will have to stay out of the GTA area if we wanna achieve that.. we also can't be bothered with the rat race. so not living or working in Toronto seems to a be cheaper option..!

We do want to find work.. my wife has over 20 years third level teaching experience and I am an X-Firefighter of 20 years, also have teaching qualification and just completed degree in Sustainable building technology,,, 

so any advice if there would be something for us round there,,, or has the recession really hit there bad..? or is it recovering..?

So... 

Is London/St Thomas sound place to live with prospects...?
Is commuting a nightmare in winter either by car or public transport...?

or does anyone know a better spot with reasonable property prices and family friendly areas...?

We do not know Ontario.. ''pin drop on a map at this stage'' so this adventure may sound crazy to some ..but hey .. what do we have to lose... Ireland is finished and we're outta here..!

Thanks folks.....


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

floyd1965 said:


> Hi Folks...
> 
> Hoping to get some advice.... Looking to head out to Ontario from Ireland.. later this year.. selling here and packing up everything..!
> 
> ...


The recession did not affect Canada as much as other developed countries.

1) Teachers are not in demand in Canada so finding employment in that profession will not be easy.
2) SW Ontario is essentially a major farming area with some of the best arable land in North America. London is the major city. Population about 350K. Its about halfway between Toronto and the US Border. I am not sure $250k will get you a great property in London.
3) St.Thomas is a small city about 20km south of London. I have a friend lives there and work opportunities are scarce.
Cost of living in Canada is about the same as UK. Some things are more expensive, some cheaper. it probably equalizes out in the long run.
You, I'm sure, are aware of Canada's weather. In Ontario we have great summers and down London way quite severe, snowy winters. If you come be prepared mentally for it.
Any more questions, please fire away and Good Luck with your plans.


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## floyd1965 (Aug 6, 2012)

Thnx Auld Yin,,

All do's n don'ts are very, very welcome.. we ain't stuck on there,,, I was thinkin we will need to stay out of the GTA area,, so even east or north of Toronto needs investigation.. Belleville looked nice..? 

Re teachin.. we were hoping to look further into college teaching... I hope to find locations of colleges that do Fire training.. as well as other trades.. as our teaching qualification is generic..

The ideal of buying outright is taking into account that we are not looking for a large house, nor a new one.. I prefer Victorian/older property, Ideally purchase a house that I will need to renovate and upgrade... As well as being a firefighter, I have been involved in refurbishment for several years... will have to look all around and work opportunities will dictate where we live,, Anyways... re the winters,, I have read the flat terrain of London area adds to the severity of the snowy times...!!.. I know that we will need to prepare for the weather.. but all has to be taken into account,,

Thnx again.....

I'm open to all suggestions and pointers....


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## headzred (Mar 20, 2012)

Hi, floyd. My daughter and myself just immigrated to Ontario last May, and we love it here. My biggest suggestion is NOT to buy outright, for several reasons. First, job markets vary so much depending on where you are, so you may find a seriously great job far from where you buy, and that would be awful. Second, traffic patterns are really tough to assess from afar and commutes of any length really affect quality of life. Third, and this is just conjecture, but it SEEMS that the housing bubble here may be close to the top, so waiting a year or two to buy may not be a bad thing financially.

We live in Markham. It's not economical, but we chose to live here because of the high schools, and we selected a home right across the street from one of the best schools. North of us in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Newmarket, and Aurora, there is a more smallish-town atmosphere and loads of lovely farmland--at least for now. To the west, Guelph is absolutely lovely, and it's far enough from Toronto that I doubt it'll be absorbed this century. Housing prices there seem more in line with what you're looking for. If you'd like to come visit, come see us!


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## floyd1965 (Aug 6, 2012)

Thnx Headzred..

We are looking to rent for a while..just wanna avoid moving our 9 year old from school to school. we could time this well re housing bubble..! so getting a central locality would be ideal

Don't mind commuting ,, but as ya know a 1 hour journey in the snow..!! don't need that stress. London is seeming out of the question indeed,,, We have heard good things re Guelph... definitely worth investigation.

Open to anything just now,, so all is welcome

Thank you for reply n ya never know, we could be round Markham way soon...


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## luvcanada (Nov 10, 2011)

I suggest you also consider Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and Milton. All of these are about 60 - 90 minutes west of Toronto. (Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Cambridge are all within about 15 minutes of each other.) You may also try Barrie - about 90 minutes north of Toronto on Lake Simcoe. These are smaller cities with all the amenities required of a city. 

The one down side to Barrie is that there is no University close to the city. I find that universities offer both a future opportunity for children and also enhance the community with both educational and cultural benefits as well as additional job opportunities. I lived in Kitchener/Waterloo while going to University of Waterloo and loved living there - small town-ish but very pleasant and enough to do. My daughter is going to University of Guelph and likes the university but not so much the town. 

Barrie, like London, has a very snowy winter because of weather patterns that bring cold moist air from Lake Huron that turns to snow on the land. Another difference with Barrie is that it is on a large lake that affords lots of summer activities.

In Ontario there are several public community colleges that are approved by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs where there may be teaching options for you. Both Kitchener's Conestoga College and Barrie's Georgian College have this program. 

You are right to rent for some time to see what the community is like before you set down roots. You can check out current housing stock by using the website realtor.ca. You can use it to look for either rental or sale of houses, condos, etc. Just put in the city you want to view, the type of housing, rent or buy, etc. You can move around the map displayed to easily compare Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge or Guelph. 

I would suggest you move in the summer, if possible. This will give you time to settle in, check out areas and meet people before winter comes and everything becomes more difficult.

Good luck.


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## colchar (Oct 25, 2011)

luvcanada said:


> I suggest you also consider Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and Milton. All of these are about 60 - 90 minutes west of Toronto. (Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and Cambridge are all within about 15 minutes of each other.)



People living in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, and Guelph can easily work in any of those cities. Kitchener and Waterloo are actually joined (you cross Victoria Street to go from one to the other) and Cambridge is more or less joined to the bottom end of Kitchener (Waterloo in the north, Kitchener in the middle, and Cambridge in the south). Cambridge is also wide enough and deep enough that it is an easy little drive into Guelph. And it doesn't take long to get from the south end of Cambridge down into either Hamilton or Brantford. It is also easy to get from Waterloo or Kitchener into Guelph although the traffic can suck - but they are expanding that highway so that will improve soon.

I lived in Waterloo for ten years while in university (B.A. Waterloo, M.A. Laurier) with a year spent down in Cambridge (Ph.D. program at McMaster University down in Hamilton so I lived in Cambridge for that year before moving back up to Waterloo) and absolutely loved the area. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to move back there.


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## floyd1965 (Aug 6, 2012)

Thnx luvcanada and colchar..... 

Glad I posted.. good tips....


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## Collie (Jan 5, 2008)

I lived in London for 6 months a few years ago, and then emigrated to Prince Edward County (which is NOT PEI: it's close to Belleville). London was pleasant, a bit industrial but house prices are fairly reasonable, and the student population means that there is a bit of life around the place. It gets a lot of snow and we didn't move there when we emigrated because it was rather far from anywhere we might want to go - Toronto and Niagara are a couple of hours, but Ottawa, Montreal etc. are annoyingly far away. And the beaches aren't that handy! The drive towards Windsor is excruciatingly boring...

We're in Picton which is half an hour from Belleville: 15 minutes to brilliant beaches/dunes; 35 wineries within a 30 min drive; pretty scenery; 45 mins to Kingston, half an hour to Belleville, 2.5 hours to Toronto, not much more to Ottawa. It suits our (early retired) lifestyle better, though houses are more expensive than Belleville because lots of people retire here from Toronto.

I think that the availability of work will be a big issue. You might want to have a look at citystats.ca (if you haven't already) - it shows employment, income, age profiles etc. 

Good luck!


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## Collie (Jan 5, 2008)

(Forgot to say in my post that you should think about renovation with caution: just about everything (from foundations to drywall to electrics to plumbing to roofs) seems to be done differently to the UK! And that Belleville has Loyalist College, which is a large institution. But again, they might well insist on Canadian expertise. It's all a bit protectionist! And buses in London are good. Belleville has them too, but must admit I've never used them, as there's no public transport to Picton so we have to drive.)


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