33
submitted 1 day ago by sik0fewl@piefed.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

From affordable housing in Alberta to high taxes in Quebec, there are many widely accepted claims about the cost of living in different parts of the country. But are these preconceptions accurate?

top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] RandAlThor@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago

But the Brazilian couple found out a few years later that moving from a big city to a smaller one isn’t always the answer. Nazzari Gomes relocated for a university teaching job in Guelph, and discovered that rents in the smaller Ontario city were just as steep. The family now pays $3,100 a month.

I find it RIDICULOUS that rent in Guelph is about the same as it is in Toronto. That NEVER used to be the case! This is freaking outrageous.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

75% of the condos around Waterloo are owned by one company. They use software to keep the right number of units empty to increase rents.

But why should Guelph be cheaper, it's a far nicer place to live than the GTA.

But hey, this is all Doug Ford and these hicks just keep electing him.

[-] healthetank@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago

I mean, who moves before looking at rental prices though??

[-] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Would you recommend a Scandinavian with two kids and wife, move to a province of canada, and be able to afford a good home with affordable institutions for the kids, and a good pay in the broadcast/infrastructure/energy/ai-automation/orchestration-industries, without the wife working, would this be possible in canada? 🙂

[-] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 3 points 17 hours ago

On a single income? I don't think so.

By the way, our healthcare system is in serious crisis, take that into account too.

[-] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 4 points 13 hours ago

Having moved here from Sweden, it's about the same honestly. From my read on it, just about every public healthcare system is in crisis the world over because moneyed interests are applying political pressure and forcing the market towards privatization everywhere.

[-] SaneMartigan@aussie.zone 18 points 1 day ago

Mate, the rest of the world looks at Scandinavia as the place to be. Literally where the grass is greener. What's got you itching to leave that? What are the problems we're not hearing about? I'm from Melbourne Australia and wouldn't recommend abyone come here without a job lined up. It's my home town so I have a massive network here which is a huge advantage for me.

[-] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago

Even though I like my country, and it IS a great place to live if you like stability and to be forced to live a certain life, it is really great. But the tax pressure is just going to be rediculess after the next election, and I am tired of the retarded laws getting made every god damn year. The freedom of choice seems to become limitted. You have to give up 60% and then you don't even feel like you are in charge of the last 40% of your income. We even set ourselves up at the cheap country side, living affordable, reducing our consumption to are minimal, and yet, both gotta work full time jobs to have a life where we can also go on vacations from time to time and just renovate the house. I would love a life where we are able to live the life we want to, of cause we will say good bye to other great things, but atleast we will be happy with what we got. I also love the nature, and canada is a beautiful country!

[-] SaneMartigan@aussie.zone 2 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, the being forced to live a certain life I can get. In Oz, we do have tax brackets that increase as you earn but we're pretty free given how much "nanny state" politics gets thrown about. Our system does feel like its designed to help the rich and punish the poor, but I've also worked in Bihar, India, where there is a whole other level of poor that I haven't seen here. Good luck mate, wishing the best for you and your fam.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

What's got you itching to leave that?

My sister in law has ensured their kids and her husband are set to come to Canada from Sweden if Putin invades another country. They have excellent jobs and are set to retire soon but they'll upend it all in a heartbeat and go live in Tahsis.

[-] No_Maines_Land@lemmy.ca 2 points 22 hours ago

Québec would work if you speak French.

Otherwise the concentration of those jobs in Anglo-Canada has a very high cost of living.

[-] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 1 points 13 hours ago

On the flip side, pay in Quebec for tech jobs is pretty terrible. I got an offer from several QC firms over the years and on average it was 20% below my current salary. I know that's just anecdotal evidence and I will wholeheartedly accept that I may be the outlier, but it has failed to sway me to move out east personally.

[-] No_Maines_Land@lemmy.ca 1 points 12 minutes ago

That's fair, I know here is a big (and growing) tech sector; but i know little of the salaries. Let alone enough to do a PPP between the salaries in various locations.

[-] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 6 points 1 day ago

We did pretty much that when we moved to B.C from Sweden, and while it'll be hard to make ends meet without having two incomes the rest of the equation is pretty much doable.

Education isn't (fully) covered by taxes here, but tuition is nowhere near as exorbitant as some other places. Similarly, public transportation in major urban areas is pretty good and affordable (compared to car ownership and maintenance at least), and health care (while struggling with the same issues of staffing as in Sweden) is covered by taxation (with the exception of supplemental secondary care like physiotherapy, but most employers offer this kind of additional coverage as part of your employment benefits).

As for employment, you're in luck with the industries you picked, as the west coast seems to attract many businesses in those fields (and is actually getting a boost off the increased migrant hiring difficulties in the US right now).

[-] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

This is very interesting to hear from another fellow Scandinavian. Did you get a job offer that made you do the jump? (Helped with setting up a place to live and such) or did you actively look yourself? How did it practically work for you guys?

[-] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 2 points 13 hours ago

I took a job that had me working US west coast hours, which didn't work too well time zone-wise. After a year or so I told my manager I was going to put in my resignation, and they offered to rehire me from their Vancouver, Canada office if I moved there myself. No moving support other than getting my temporary worker visa set up, so I had to find a place to live, move my belongings, etc. out of pocket. In hindsight I could've probably negotiated that, but that's not really in the Swedish nature so I didn't.

Ultimately, I am happy with the move though. I now hold permanent resident status and my wife has received citizenship. We've moved around inside B.C. a bunch as well over the past 10 years, but we're now settled in a lovely place that combines all the things we loved about our home in Sweden and the amazing scenery this province has to offer.

DM we if you want more practical hands-on advice on things to do first, second, etc. when moving here and getting set up to work and live here.

[-] maplesaga@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Wow for the CBC to publish this the numbers must be bad. I assume everyone's moving to Edmonton and Calgary, which rezoned housing and is driving growth with rising oil prices. Housing is going to eat it.

this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
33 points (97.1% liked)

Canada

11757 readers
825 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Related Communities


🍁 Meta


🗺️ Provinces / Territories


🏙️ Cities / Local Communities

Sorted alphabetically by city name.


🏒 Sports

Baseball

Basketball

Curling

Hockey

Soccer


💻 Schools / Universities

Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.


💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales


🗣️ Politics


🍁 Social / Culture


Rules

  1. Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca


founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS