" Hi there this is my first time on this site. I would like to find some new friends in the Calgary area, ex-brits or Canadians who have been through the immigration process and can offer friendship and advice, who don''t just want to sell me a house for their help! Looking forward to hearing from you. "

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" Welcome future neighbour!! My name is Mike & I live about a 2 hour drive south of Calgary in Lethbridge. I assume because your interested in ""ex-Brits"" your coming from the UK. Well I''m not a Brit, just a ""colonial"" but I''ve lived in different parts of Canada & can maybe answer some questions. I''ve been to the UK recently (just passing thru on business) but from this & my university backpack days I can guarantee you are in for some surprises!!! "

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" Hi Mike, Thanks for your reply, you have me worried what are these suprises? I have been to Canada, Ontario and BC, but I was''nt to keen on the Toronto area and I loved BC, but there does''nt seem to be good employment prospects and I found that the housing is pretty pricey. Please tell me your views on Calgary. My husband has spent some time there when he was in the British Army he did a few excercises down at Medicine Hat. "

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" First Calgary isn''t a bad place. Its a good size (about 700,000 depending on where you draw the line and it has just about everything including a good university, colleges, shopping, professional sports (hockey & Canadian football which is nothing like yours), etc. Southern Alberta is much drier than the UK as your husband can attest to since he''s been here. The land is also quite flat although from Calgary you can see the mountains about an hour & 1/2 drive away. Much of the surrounding area is cattle country (because it is too dry for most forms or agriculture) and the traditions of the west have been maintained in rodeos such as the Calgary Stampede (probably known world wide) and in just about every small town in the province. Winter in Calgary can be extremely cold (like -40 C at the extreme) but we have a localized weather phenomenon call ""Chinooks"" which are warm winds from the mountains (up to 80 kph not being uncommon here in the south, not quite so bad in Calgary) that can raise the temperature from -40 C to +10 in a few hours. You will notice that pick-up trucks are as common as cars on the roads because gas is a lot cheaper here. (about 30 pence per litre as opposed to 70 p last time I was in London.) Housing in Calgary is expensive but the taxes are probably less than your used to. By the way, is this a permanent move or a short term one? Either way, I hope I didn''t scare you and hope you enjoy it here. "

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" There were no suprises there!! but its great to have another persons input. Yes it is a permanent move, but if we don''t like Calgary then there are other cities just as nice, it just depends where you feel the happiest. Gas here is now 80pence a litre and may well go up again in the near future. I live in Cornwall the far southwest of the UK and there is a lot of Farming done here also, although with the damage of the foot and mouth crises who knows what will happen to the farming community. Thanks for your imput all information greatly recieved. "

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" Hello, I am a sales assistant to Tom Boleantu of The Expatriate Group and we may be able to assist you in your transition to Calgary. Please refer to our website www.expat.ca. Tom is a former expat and fully knowledgeable of CDN and Brt tx. Give me a quick call and I can explain in greater detail if you would like . Most of all - enjoy Canada!! "

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Hi! I arrived in Calgary in late March and am an American expat. My husband was transferred here last fall. We were married in March after a long long distance relationship :) I''m learning alot about Calgary and would love to help you if I can. Email me anytime.

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" Hello There, I moved here from Leeds in 99, it started as a 6month assignment which lasted 2years and recently I was offered a job here be my employers. That speaks volumes for the place, it is a very nice city. The people are friendly, it''s safe, clean and lots of space. Things are cheap, the mountains are close, the weather is nice, can get a bit nippy but at least you can ski. If you have any specific questions I may be able to help. "

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" Lived in Calgary for 30 years now, and I''d be happy to help you out with any info. And the good part is...I''m not selling anything!! LOL!! "

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" Thanks Frank, great that your not trying to sell me anything! I want some info on areas to live for a young family like ourselves and also info on the job market. My husband works in Telecoms and I''ll do just about anything! all your help will be appreciated. "

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" I am glad your journey to Calgary worked out so well, I hope the same will happen to us, Thanks for your post. "

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" Hi Angela, So glad your long distance marriage is now over. How do you like Canada compared to the USA? You can email me at home wrjharvey@aol.com, love to chat about Calgary. "

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" You are very welcome Rachel. And I''m happy to help. But before I can answer your question with any kind of accuracy I would need to know a few things. How old are your kids? What grades are they in? Private school, religous school or public school? What are their activities? Do you actually want to live in Calgary proper or in one of the oulying but nearby communities (cheaper prices, less ''city issues'' longer commutes). What prices do you want to pay? (more about this in a second). What about your own lifestyles-what do you enjoy doing? Does your husband have a job yet? Let me say this about Calgary...I have lived in many of Canada''s ''great'' cities, and many in the US and a few in Europe (as a tourist only). I have always maintined that Calgary is just the finest place in the world to live. Period. But be warned. It get''s very cold here in the winter. Minus 20 C is not considered unusual. It can also be very windy here, 80 km/hr is not uncommon. Which means that wind chill is often in the minus 30 C range. Not just cold, not just inconveniant, but dangerous. There are stories of people whose vehicles have broken down freezing to death. It also gets dark early in the day in the winter here. Sun will be down by 4:30 and will not be seen until 8 the next day. Calgary is in the middle of one of it''s boom cycles right now. No matter what people say...this is still an oil and gas town. When the price of oil or gas goes up, the city turns into a construction zone and prices go through the sky. Of course when things go the other way, it can get ''grim''. You can get an idea of housing at this url: www.creb.com, which is the real estate board here. In this province a buyer can ''assume a mortgage''. Which means practically speaking, that if you are able to pay the difference between what the exisiting owner''s mortgage is, and what he is asking, you need not go through a mortgage qualifying process. And mortgages are renewed automatically. So price while important is only part of the story. Here''s an example: a $300,000 dollar house might only have a $20,000 down payment. In other words you give the owner $20,000 and assume his monthly payments. That might be oh say $1,800 a month. Property taxes are at about 1 per cent of the value of the house. Every 5 years the city goes out and apprasies properties in all of the communities and then your taxes go up or down based on the market assessment. Let''s see...what else can I tell you? Until I know more about those questions not much I suppose. You mentioned your husband was in the telcom industry. You might already know that Canada''s big companies are laying off huge fractions of their staffs. Here in Alberta there are three main players in that field. Telus the major phone company, ATand T, a secondary player, and Nortel. All are in layoff mode. There are comic strips around that show a homeless person holding up a sign that says ''will build websites for food''. Which just captures the ''pure tech'' environment right now to a ''t''. While the employment numbers look good from afar, you should know that many of these jobs are inthe $7 dollar per hour range. Taxes in Canada are horrible. You will pay 16 per cent to the federal governement on the first $30,000 of your income, 22 per cent on the next $30,000, and 27 per cent on the next. The province takes 10 per cent of your gross income, so the you are actually paying tax on a tax. With what is left over you will pay a national sales tax of 7 per cent on any and all purchases. The federal governemtn allows you to have a personal deduction of $7,200, and the province allows about $13,000. There are also source deductions for social programs such as retirement etc, which will take about another 8 per cent of your gross income. Health care is not free, you will pay about $80 per month for your family, but that is not very comprehensive, and would not include things like drugs or dental. To get that kind of coverage you must buy private policies which owuld cost as a guess around another $100 or so a month for your family. There will still be deductions, and limits on what those can be used for. I should also point out that education is not completley free here either. Your primary school children will be bringing you home bills for everything from school trips to other expenses. Be prepared for $500 or so types of bills for them. university and College is expensive here, expect to pay about $4,000 or so a year for tutition full time. Day care is not free either in case you need that-I have no idea what that will cost but can find out quickly for you if you need to know. When I get your answers I''ll be happy to send on any thoughts. You may wish to send that info to my email directly rather than posting here-the email is thatmtnman@hotmail.com. Regards Frank "

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" Frank, Your e-mail address does''nt seem to work. You can mail me at wrjharvey@aol.com. I can then reply and tell you more stuff. Regards Rachel "

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" Angela, I would love to e-mail you, but I don''t have your address. You can mail me at wrjharvey@aol.com, and then you can tell me your thoughts on moving to Calgary, i would love to hear from you. Regards Rachel "

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" Hi Rachel, Email already sent. My email addy is fjpecsy@hotmail.com-is that what you used??? Cheers Frank "

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My email is angelathomasca@yahoo.ca Thanks Rachel! I look forward to hearing from you! I''ve been at the Folk Festival all weekend and I couldnt be happier! What a BEAUTIFUL CITY!

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