Canada | Imamother

little_mage

Sun, Feb 19 2017, 8:59 pm

We're planning to move to Canada this summer. As far as the legalities go, we're working with lawyers, so we have all that under control. However, we're looking for information on various communities. Right now, we're most interested in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and the greater Toronto area. What can people tell us about those areas? We are planning to homeschool and will not have a car.

amother

Bronze

Sun, Feb 19 2017, 9:11 pm

I live in Montreal and can try and help you out. The 5 cities you listed are vastly different from each other.
What type of community are you looking for? Montreal and Toronto have large frum populations with many different types of communities. In comparison, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa have tiny frum communities.
What are your job plans?
Depending on the type of job you are looking for, French might be an issue if you choose Montreal.

Gerbera

Sun, Feb 19 2017, 9:31 pm

I'm in Toronto. If you are looking at Thornhill it is difficult to be without a car. If you're homeschooling then schools aren't an issue. Housing in Toronto is very very expensive as is the cost of living. Are you looking for employment in certain areas? Do you have specific questions. This is a very large city with close to 200,000 Jews and many different communities spread over a very large area.

Winnipeg and Edmonton have very small frum.communities. Ottawa is larger but not near the size of Montreal and Toronto.

As the previous poster mentioned language could be a barrier in Montreal for employment. I think it's a much more transit friendly city than Toronto. I'm sure you know the immigration process for Quebec is different that the rest of Canada.

I've lived in both Montreal and Toronto....if you have any city or community specific questions I can try to answer. I wish I could tag ppl here because there is a woman from Edmonton here. I know several ppl.who left Winnipeg to Toronto for their kids due to the small community and limited options.

little_mage

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 11:38 am

We're probably best described as conservative leaning modern orthodox. We don't want a super sheltered community. We have a tv, watch movies, read secular books, etc, so we'd like a community where that isn't outside the norm.

We're not really interested in Vancouver, because of the high cost of living, and the fact that it'll be further from families, but really, we'll go anywhere my husband can get job. He's finishing up his Ph.D in linguistics, and he is also is interested in data science or programming jobs. He's good with statistics. So if you know any jobs, send them our way. We've been going some online research, but we're just trying to get a better feel for different areas, especially people's personal experience.

My husband is good with languages, so I think he could manage French if he needed to. Would I be overly isolated in Montreal not speaking it? We were briefly in Ottawa a couple of years ago and liked it, but never really made it out to the community and actually had a car at the time. We were strongly interested in Hamilton/Greater Toronto, but the high cost of living is slightly off putting.

amother

Bronze

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 12:35 pm

The cost of living is definitely lower in Montreal vs. Vancouver or Toronto. Most Montrealers are bilingual. Some neighbourhoods are more heavily French than others. You can totally manage day to day living w/o speaking French. It is more of an issue when it comes to employment. The city has a fantastic (and very reliable) public transportation network, so not having a car is not likely to be a problem. Some of the more heavily Jewish neighborhoods are somewhat far from downtown and the heart (e.g. Cote St Luc and Dollard). In those areas, a car is more of a necessity.

Marion

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 1:34 pm

amother wrote:

You definitely do NOT need a car in Cote St-Luc! The bus service is reliable (at least it was the last time I was there) and connects to the metro at Plamondon (the heart of the Jewish strip) or Villa Maria. Dollard meets downtown via the commuter train, but a car is definitely more necessary even just for such basic errands as buying food. There's also the St-Laurent option, also with good metro & bus service. I know you said you're planning on homeschooling but check the rules; in Quebec kids who are immigrants are legally required to be educated in French-language schools. I don't know if this applies to homeschoolers as well.

pgk

Mon, Feb 20 2017, 1:48 pm

While it may be true that public transportation in Montreal is adequate be aware that it gets VERY cold in Montreal which may make waiting outside for a bus or walking to the metro station less palatable especially with kids.