Moving out of Province? Pro's & Con's | GTAMotorcycle.com

Moving out of Province? Pro's & Con's

Jampy00

Jampy00

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My wife and I have toyed around with the idea of moving for sometime. While we enjoy our home we are fearful the area around it is on the demise.
I also have the luxury that the business I operate (but do not own) is willing to move with me (as long as I find a suitable location). So with this we actually considered moving out of Ontario. Our guess would be either Alberta, Sask, or Manitoba. But my question is not focused on the destination more so the process involved.
So for any that have actually done this, what advise would you provide and what would you have done differently?

Thanks
 
Following out of curiosity
 
We've got at least a few that have left. @gsxr guy went east, @daught and a few others went to BC I believe and this spring I think one moved their family to WInterpeg, they had a similar thread last year.
 
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I've moved long distances a few times, twice to the US with the full house, once to the Netherlands with just a suitcase. And of course I also moved back.

The process isn't much different than moving locally -- just more distance. The tricky/difficult stuff:

- Finding a decent community with the attractions and services you desire isn't always easy, even when moving to a city. You will need to take a few trips, do a lot of research, and engage a realtor to make the most of your time when scouting a new place.
- Relocating. I used transport container-type movers. They dropped the container in the driveway, we packed them for shipment, and they dropped the container at the destination. Quickest and certainly the cheapest. We drove the cars.
- Changing over ID and vehicle titles. You generally have up to 90 days to change over your DL, health care registration, and vehicle titles. DLs are exchangeable across Canada, healthcare is usually online. Vehicles usually require local certification/inspection. Insurance needs to be changed over too, some provinces are private so you may be able to change your existing insurance over, some are public so there is no shopping around.
- Establishing services, school registration (if you have kids), and finding doctors and dentists are about the same as a local move. Local utilities may treat you like a first-timer, requiring a deposit, otherwise, it's the same as a local move.
- CanadaPost will reroute your mail (there is a fee)
 
My ex girlfriend from a few years ago is an engineer and was able to land a very good job in Winnipeg. She only survived there for 3 years and came running back to Ontario to a lower paid job just to be here... She said it was very cold and BORRING there. Unless you are in to hunting and/or hokey - there is nothing to do there comparing to our GTA (NOT my words..) The only good thing came out of her 'excursion" is that she brought a good downpayment for her new house from all the money she saved... (mind you all of this happened before Rona hit, keep that in mind)
I'd say if you are young - go explore, just have a backup plan if you don't like it there.
Cheers.
 
Jampy00 said:
But my question is not focused on the destination more so the process involved.
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Assuming you're moving to another province and not country, the only things I remember a friend of mine having to deal with when moving out of Ontario was replacing their driver's license and health card.

Leaving the country involves a LOT of other stuff, mostly relating to income tax.
 
If you have any vehicles that have been customized heavily, you may be better to sell them in Ontario. A friend had a vehicle with a valid ontario ownership and plate but he couldn't get it past safety inspection in another province (it shouldnt have passed in ontario either but people had contacts to make it happen).

A very very important point regarding tax is to make sure you qualify to write the move off. You need to be moving more than 40 km closer to work and need to be moving to accommodate a new role/responsibility. It sounds to me like you are moving to accommodate your employers expansion and new office in the west. That puts all moving expenses, lawyer fees, land transfer tax, etc as deductions from pretax income. It is a five or six figure swing in disposable income over a few years that costs your employer nothing.
 
BC is nice, but EXPENSIVE
Everyone I know has been going east lately. Better real estate prices and better jobs. Halifax real estate is growing fast.
 
Watch the details in the licences. I met a guy that had ridden legally in BC but when he moved to Ontario the "M" went missing on his DL and he had to do the M-1, M-2, M route, probably got reamed by insurance.
 
The grass is always greener….

I learned a valuable lesson this year when we went to look at a place we always loved abroad at a different time of year. We always went in dry season so this time we went in wet season to see what it would be like to live there year round (this is a wistful retirement plan eventually but might also be an AirBnB/bolt hole plan in the meantime).

It rained every day….and not wussy BC rain…it was a ******* monsoon. The stream in the garden of the place we stayed in swelled from a meter across to many meters across most days we were there. Some roads and houses flooded very badly. The mornings were always fine but the rain started at 1pm like clockwork. I didn’t mind it so much but it drove my wife nuts and removed the notion of staying there outside of the dry season.

This is a long way round of saying I won’t make any permanent career/life changing moves without at least checking what the place is like for a while at different times beforehand. When I was younger I’d just take a chance and off I’d go. Things are different when it’s likely to be more permanent.
 
nobbie48 said:
Watch the details in the licences. I met a guy that had ridden legally in BC but when he moved to Ontario the "M" went missing on his DL and he had to do the M-1, M-2, M route, probably got reamed by insurance.
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This is a good point. When you go to another jurisdiction that has reciprocal agreements with Ontario, you NEED TO BE SURE THEY TRANSFER YOUR G AND ANY OTHER ENDORSEMENTS -- don't depend on the clerk processing your request to notice or care about transferring the endorsements on your license. Always ask for some form of confirmation that everything got transferred.

If they only do the G portion you might not know till your new license arrives in the mail. They also send a cancellation request to ON so you're not carrying 2 licenses. You can get your ON license reinstated for a period of time, it's both costly and frustrating to correct.

Don't ask me how I learned this!
 
jc100 said:
The grass is always greener….

I learned a valuable lesson this year when we went to look at a place we always loved abroad at a different time of year. We always went in dry season so this time we went in wet season to see what it would be like to live there year round (this is a wistful retirement plan eventually but might also be an AirBnB/bolt hole plan in the meantime).

It rained every day….and not wussy BC rain…it was a ******* monsoon. The stream in the garden of the place we stayed in swelled from a meter across to many meters across most days we were there. Some roads and houses flooded very badly. The mornings were always fine but the rain started at 1pm like clockwork. I didn’t mind it so much but it drove my wife nuts and removed the notion of staying there outside of the dry season.

This is a long way round of saying I won’t make any permanent career/life changing moves without at least checking what the place is like for a while at different times beforehand. When I was younger I’d just take a chance and off I’d go. Things are different when it’s likely to be more permanent.
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I agree with the theory but its hard for most people to dedicate that much time to the search. The husband of one of my wifes coworkers recently got offered a substantial promotion requiring a move to the prairies. They listed their house and sold within 12 hours, then flew out and bought a house on the weekend. They'll spend at least a few years in the house and then think about changing neighbourhooods/locations if necessary.
 
Meh, I'm old so the grass is brown on both sides and the fence needs repair. LOL
If this idea turns into a reality we would have a couple of years to plan before actually doing anything.
As stated this move would be within Canada. Good points on the taxes and license. I would for sure check those out.
As for vehicles, I'm not overly concerned as they are both new-ish and very well maintained.
While I think the hardest part would be the actual moving, where we end up would be a factor as well, lucky for us we keep to ourselves so don't require a large active, social community. Just good internet..
 
matthew said:
It would take a lot of money to have me live anywhere east of Calgary and west of Sault Ste Marie.
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Why? Weather? I havent tried it in the winter but there is some land between regina and moosejaw that is magical.
 
Lack of public transit, crime , the weather is a factor as well. Im sure some people would be fine in the prairies or NW Ontario, but not this guy.
 
GreyGhost said:
I agree with the theory but its hard for most people to dedicate that much time to the search. The husband of one of my wifes coworkers recently got offered a substantial promotion requiring a move to the prairies. They listed their house and sold within 12 hours, then flew out and bought a house on the weekend. They'll spend at least a few years in the house and then think about changing neighbourhooods/locations if necessary.
Click to expand...

It took a week‘s vacation to realize it wouldn’t be a good fit. That’s a decent cost/profit ratio for me!
 
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