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Returning to Toronto

A

Admiral Beez

Guest
Hi everyone, after almost three years in Fredericton, NB, we're moving back to our Cabbagetown house. I can't wait to get back to the city. If you're interested, I'd be pleased to describe our reasons for coming out here, and reasons for returning now. It's mostly about my kids, career path and the differences in the GTA and NB cultures and business environments (and will someone teach these folks how to drive! LOL ).

Most surprisingly to us was the much higher cost of living in NB compared to Toronto. With the sole exception of lower housing costs (BTW property tax as a % in Fredericton is higher), all other costs are much higher than Toronto, including vehicle gas, home heating, groceries (much higher, likely due to logistics), car and home insurance. EDIT: and income taxes are much higher than in ON.

I'm also committing to stay off of the political discussion forum, as those topics always get me into trouble. As us British ex-pats say, pub talk should rarely include politics or religion.

I have no regrets about our east coast adventure, as had I not taken this contract job I would have always wondered about it. Plus, being an immigrant to Canada, I wanted to break the idea that most only live in Toronto (GTA), Montreal, Vancouver or other big cities. Thus, I wanted to explore this part of the country. I've taken my girls down to the ocean dozens of times to collect sea shells, bought a 1969 Triumph motorcycle and toured along the ocean, and dog sled through the woods of northern NB. All in all, it's been fantastic. Yet, it's time to get my family back home to their grandparents, uncles and cousins, and to get my career in order.

I look forward to contributing here again, and to conversing with the group.

Cheers,
 
Welcome back, Beez.

I must say I'm somewhat surprised to hear that almost _everything_ is more expensive out East, though I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, given its isolation
from the manufacturing heartland and small population raising the cost of logistics. Then again, housing costs being higher is nothing to ignore. The cost of carrying an extra couple hundred thousand on a mortgage can probably come close to outweighing the sum of the differences of all those other costs.

It also goes to show that Toronto should stop dilly-dallying and raise its property taxes to a level more in line with the rest of the country.
 
But Toronto isn't "the rest of the country" - the average house price in Fredericton is about $130,000 whereas in Toronto it is about $354,000, so lower property tax for a home of the same size here and consuming the same level of services as one there makes perfect sense.
 
What about GTA suburbs? Houses are pretty expensive there, as well, and their rates are higher.
 
Indeed. Those folks could move a few miles away and live in a more pleasantly urban downtown environment with lower taxes if they wanted to. Those wacky suburbanites!
 
"Indeed. Those folks could move a few miles away and live in a more pleasantly urban downtown environment with lower taxes if they wanted to. Those wacky suburbanites!"

Maybe they fear suffering from "Wal-Mart Withdrawl" if they chose to do so.
 
Oh, I think Toronto is big enough to swallow a few of their pesky little shopping icons and remake them in our own shopping image. We can do anything we set our collective mind to.
 
True, but I think the biggest challenge would be to convince them that you can actually arrive at a store without having travelled in a car. Or that you don't have to buy your carrots, CD's and toilet paper all at the same place! Baby steps, I suppose...
 
For sound political reasons we have to tame the 905 and make them ours, draw them within our sphere, and remake them in our own image. Once they think like us they'll vote like us.
 
Then again, housing costs being higher is nothing to ignore. The cost of carrying an extra couple hundred thousand on a mortgage can probably come close to outweighing the sum of the differences of all those other costs.
Click to expand...
True, but we're blessed with having most of our Cabbagetown house paid off, so the outstanding mortgages on both the Fredericton and Toronto houses are almost exactly the same. The rent on the Toronto house pays for its mortgage and operating costs (very little profit left over, as we're renting to friends at a reduced rate) so the lower cost of housing in Fredericton is not a cost saving factor (except for lower total property taxes - but not by much), whereas the higher income taxes, fuel costs and higher cost of living does hit the pocket book badly.

For a province that's talking about attracting immigrants and those Canadians from outside of the region, they've got a strange way of showing it.
 
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