Anyone moved their family to Alberta from England?

2POSTS

8 years ago

We are a family of four. My wife and I are in our early 30's and our trip wo children are under 4. My wife is a paediatric nurse and I am a self employed shopkeeper.

It has been a long held desire of mine to live in Canada and at this time in our lives my wife now too really wants to make a big lifestyle change and is very much open to the idea of emigrating there. We are planning a big road trip in June from Calgary to Vancouver to get a feel for the landscape and culture and try to find where we would ideally like to settle.

I did the rocky mountaineer years ago and I confirmed what I knew in my heart that this was the landscape I want to live in. My wife has never been though. I feel a pull to Alberta and like the idea of the area west of Calgary. And perhaps north towards Edmonton. But I want to be in or around the mountains above all. But it will of course have to depend on employment opportunities.

I have a few specific questions as well as I would love to just hear more generally from anyone who has made the move in a similar position to ours and the experience they have had.

My wife has had a career break to be with the children. But when she goes back to work she'd wants to continue nursing out there but not with adults. Just specifically paediatric nursing. Does anyone have any experience in this field and information of job roles there such as school nursing?

I own a pet store. But would want a complete change. I love the idea of logging for example. I just want to work in that idillic Rocky mountain landscape. Any advice on job roles and what I'd need to do to make the change. I earn good money at the mo but am happy to start at the bottom and hopefully prove myself and secure sponsorship to stay permanently.

Our dream home would be the classic big log cabin outside of a rocky mountain town. Our house here is worth approx £350,000. We have about £100,000 equity. Would I be right in assuming we would be able to get a mortgage that would allow us to buy that sort of property for something in the region of $500,000 canadian. Assuming we eventually got permanent residency.

Any advice or just to hear about your experience would be amazing. Thank you so much

See also

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PEI Red Contributor

147POSTS

8 years ago

You neglected to mention where you live in the UK: rural, urban, sub-urban? If you want to live in a log cabin in the Rockies (I'm imagining soaring tors, pine trees and babbling streams is what you're looking for.) you'll be a couple hours outside of Calgary. I did a quick check for log cabins on the national real estate site and they seem to be few and far between. (I think your budget is okay, if you stay in Alberta.) Mortgage lending rules are quite strict in Canada, so you would have to be able to prove sufficient income to support the mortgage.

Each region of Canada is different, not just environmentally, but culturally. Outside of Calgary, the political climate is VERY conservative (I'm speaking in broad brush strokes here), religion is a focus. Homogeneousness is fairly common in the smaller towns of most Canadian provinces. This might or might not work for you. I, personally, would find it difficult to live outside of Calgary, just from a political point of view. I have family members who love it.

Logging: most logging is done by larger companies and would require long stretches away from house and family. Logging camps are set up in the wide swaths of forest throughout British Columbia, Alberta and other provinces. You might need to be in camp for several weeks straight. Much lumber processing is taken care of in other countries. (I sometimes think that Canada would do well to focus on secondary industry to help the economy.) It's also incredibly hard work and dangerous, even with all the technological advances. As environmental movements grow and the pine beetle infestation increases, I imagine that the industry will wane. We're in the middle of a soft wood lumber dispute with the USA, our major trading partner. You might want to consider looking into tourism related fields (one of Canada's largest job sectors) that will take you out into the beautiful wilderness, but let you sleep in your own bed most of the time. You might have to fight it out with Aussies and Kiwis to get a job, as they love being in the Rockies, too. There are many websites that show you what jobs are currently available, to give you an idea of what might be possible.

Pediatric nurses would likely have a lot of opportunity in the bigger cities in Canada. How your wife's degrees transfer over is another question. This could likely be easily answered by the Canadian Nurses Association or the Ministry of Health.

Living anywhere near the Rocky mountains means lots of snow and cold. On the east side you are exposed to Arctic winds and temperatures can drop to -50C with the wind chill. (Not an average, but it's been colder.) On the upside, you also get winter Chinooks, that bring warm winds up from the desert in the USA. I've been in -35C and it's really not that pleasant. All that being said the Rockies are stunning and I marvel every time I drive through them and life in Canada is fairly incredible.

I know that doesn't answer a lot of your questions, so I'm sorry for that. Hope this helps a little.

1 member reacted to this post

greggleon Member

2POSTS

8 years ago

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for taking the time to respond and in such detail.

We have been looking in to everything a great deal and as much as I would love to live there, we all would really, it is starting to not feel right for us. At least at this time.

It turns out my wife's degree's in nursing are not directly transferable and having got to where she has with her career, she is very reluctant to have to spend months and probably years retraining. Also it looks unlikely that she could work in her specialist role (child protection and safeguarding) and would likely have to go back to ward work. Which she doesn't want to do. We also don't want for her to go back to work yet ideally and I will struggle to earn the money I do now doing anything else, anywhere else. I have no qualifications and having run my business now for so long, anything else would set us back financially and require my wife to return to work. Which we are not ready for her to do while the children are still young.

I suppose for now it will have to remain and dream and perhaps a big holiday for us all but one day maybe we'll make it a reality. Thanks again for taking an interest in us. Gregg