What's it like to live in Vancouver or Victoria?

[Supernal]

Hi, I'm considering a move to Vancouver or Victoria (I've about had it with the weather and pollution in Toronto) and am wondering what's it like to live there (excellent diving aside)?

-What's the cost of living like (apartments, food, utilities, etc.)
-What's the vacancy rate?
-Culturally, what's it like?
-Are jobs hard to find (I've worked in public sector-but not government-administration)?
-How's the health care system there?

thanks,
Rhonda

 

[MarkH]

I think real estate/rental costs are even higher than Toronto. In Victoria expect to pay a minimum of $600 to $700 a month for a cheap one bedroom apartment. I don't know about Vancouver anymore, but vacancy rates in Victoria are somewhere around 1%. I imagine grocery-type things are about the same. You will probably save on heating costs. It was -2 degrees Celsius today (after a week of people wearing shorts) and it felt weird with all the blossoms on the trees. As far as jobs go, I have no idea. I got mine pretty easy, but I'm in the military and they'll take just about anyone. Vancouver is much more ethnically(sp?) diverse than Victoria. When I moved from Vancouver to Victoria, I was shocked that everyone looked the same here. It was like being on some weird movie set. I'm used to it now and am starting to be able to tell people apart. I have nothing to compare the health system to - better than some places in the world I supose. Culture's a bit of an abstract term. We have a guy in a kilt that plays bagpipes for the tourists in front of the Inner Harbour. I bet the people in Paris would be jealous if they saw that. You probably wouldn't notice a huge difference between Vancouver and Toronto, but Victoria's a fairly small, sleepy town.

 

[wedivebc]

Hi, I'm considering a move to Vancouver or Victoria (I've about had it with the weather and pollution in Toronto) and am wondering what's it like to live there (excellent diving aside)?

-What's the cost of living like (apartments, food, utilities, etc.)
-What's the vacancy rate?
-Culturally, what's it like?
-Are jobs hard to find (I've worked in public sector-but not government-administration)?
-How's the health care system there?

thanks,
Rhonda

You'll need a drivers license

 

[Darnold9999]

Tough question - so many facets.

I grew up in Victoria, now live in Vancouver have for about 15 years, however I still have significant ties to Victoria so am over quite a bit. Keep in mind all of this is generalization so:

As Toronto is to New York Vancouver is to Toronto as Victoria is to Vancouver.

This applies to just about everything and is either good or bad depending on your perspective.

Victoria is a very small town if you are coming from a big city. It is very WASP in comparison to either Vancouver or Toronto as someone else already said. Victoria has a fairly vibrant music and quite a large artistic community. However the base population is quite small so in comparison to a larger city it will feel quite limited. Vancouver in contrast has just about everything in terms of culture, great music artists, etc. however not as much as TO (as I understand it) again TO has a much larger population base to support more variety. Think New York - Toronto.

Work is quite difficult to come by (outside of the tourist service industry) in Victoria in general. This is a retirement/ government/tourist town. These three industries drive everything and lots of people with lots of experience want to semi retire in Victoria so you are competing with those people for the good jobs. I don't know the actual employment market in Victoria right now so I may be wrong, however this is the historical pattern. In general Victoria pays 20% or more less for the same jobs than in Vancouver and the cost of living is not 20% less. This does not apply to Union/government jobs but for pretty much everything else it does. In my field of work the difference is more like 50% less. Moving to Vancouver more than doubled my annual earnings.

In Vancouver things are hopping right now - if you were a conveyancing secretary, or paralegal you could find a job within a day of arriving easily. (This is the world I work in so I am familiar with it - I have people asking me regularly if I know anyone.) Getting ready for the Olympics and the boom in resource industries is driving the economy into overdrive here.

Work, and pretty much everything else happens at a slower pace in Victoria. A much more relaxed city. Vancouver is much busier and things happen at a much faster pace. Toronto is busier and faster again, New York faster again.

Renting is shifting quite a bit in both markets, property values have changed considerably in the past year so there has been a lot of movement. The rental market is in flux at the moment. $600 - 700 will get you a reasonable 1 bedroom in Victoria I believe. I rent out two one bedroom suites in Victoria for considerably less than that, but my tenants have been with me for years. Don't know the Vancouver rental market.

Utilities will be cheaper in both cities. No need to spend so much on heat. You cannot live without a car in Victoria. You can in Vancouver, but not easily. To do it you would pretty much have to live downtown.

Health care is an odd question as basic medical care is pretty much the same across Canada. If you have specific concerns you should probably talk to a medical professional as there are significant differences in what the BC Medical pays compared to OHIP. Some things are better some not as good. Vancouver has a very good research/teaching hospital at UBC and a very good Children's Hospital. Victoria has two very good hospitals (I lived with a Nuc Med Tech for a couple of years who worked in both and is still there). Both have good reputations.

Two final points. First, Victoria is on an Island, and while you are only 50 or so miles from Vancouver and a little more from Seattle, in practical terms you are four hours from both. I can almost get to Hawaii faster than I can get to Victoria. In the winter the ferry runs every two hours and if you want to drive you line up an hour early or pay extra for a reservation. It can be psychologically isolating to live on an Island - not logical but true. I go to Victoria 3 or four times a year. When I lived in Victoria I would go to Vancouver maybe once a year.

Second both cities get significant rain and cloud. Vancouver more than Victoria. If you are subject to winter depression it can be a very difficult city to live in. I bring this up as you are moving largely as you are fed up with the weather. It is much warmer here and you don't have to deal with the snow. However it rains - alot.

Hope that helps

 

[Supernal]

You'll need a drivers license

Maybe we can add that to the OW training????

 

[Diver0001]

Hi, I'm considering a move to Vancouver or Victoria (I've about had it with the weather and pollution in Toronto) and am wondering what's it like to live there (excellent diving aside)?

-What's the cost of living like (apartments, food, utilities, etc.)
-What's the vacancy rate?
-Culturally, what's it like?
-Are jobs hard to find (I've worked in public sector-but not government-administration)?
-How's the health care system there?

thanks,
Rhonda

I've been gone too long to answer most of your questions but I'd say Vancouver is the only city in Canada I would want to live in. I like Victoria a lot but it's too small and isolated for my liking.

Vancouver might feel small to you coming from Toronto but it's still 45 odd km from one side of Greater Vancouver to the other so you'll need a car. The most interesting part of Vancouver to live in, if you ask me is the area one bridge away from downtown on the north/west sides. East Vancouver all the way from downtown along Hastings str. most of the way to SFU was a dump when I lived there and if you get too far out of downtown bus service is less frequent which means you'll either need enormous amounts of patience or a car to do pretty much everything.

The best part of living in Vancouver is the food. There are *huge* and I mean *huge* numbers of fantastic restaurants in and around Vancouver. I'm wild about Chinese food and that's the thing I miss most about not living there anymore.

Culturally it has everything you expect of a big city. There are large East Indian and Asian populations in Vancouver which gives it a special "Asian Rim" feel to it. I particularly liked that but I also heard a lot of people moan about it.

And within an hours drive of the city there are many opportunities to get away from it all. Hiking trails and access to the mountains are well developed, the camping is excellent and if you want to drive for a day instead of 2 hours then you can find yourself in some of the most fantastic wilderness on the planet. And *that* is the reason that if I ever do move back to Canada it'll be in Vancouver.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

Health care is an odd question as basic medical care is pretty much the same across Canada. If you have specific concerns you should probably talk to a medical professional as there are significant differences in what the BC Medical pays compared to OHIP. Some things are better some not as good. Vancouver has a very good research/teaching hospital at UBC and a very good Children's Hospital. Victoria has two very good hospitals (I lived with a Nuc Med Tech for a couple of years who worked in both and is still there). Both have good reputations.

In Vancouver the medical care is excellent but the further you get from Vancouver, the worse the medical service gets. Most of the new doctors who got good grades and know what they're doing want to work in the big hospitals where they have all the toys..... Outside Vancouver you get the odd doctor who chooses for the slower life-style but mostly you get the lackeys who couldn't get a job at a "real" hospital. If you get deep into the interior in places like Nelson and Cranbrook the medical professionals wear feathers in their hair and dance around your bed shaking rattles and praying for miracles. The situation in Cranbrook, for example, is so extreme that people who live there will drive all the way to Calgary to see a doctor.... In Cranbrook they do excel at one thing, though....putting people out of their misery.

Same thing goes for other professions where all teh resources are concentrated in the big cities....teachers, hi-tech skills etc. There are always some who choose for it but the further you get from Vancouver, the lower your expectations need to be.

R..

 

[Darnold9999]

Would agree with Diver0001 re the further you get away from Vancouver the lower the standards, with the exception of Victoria. However this is true across Canada not just in BC. Victoria is a bit of an anomoly in that while it is a small town it has the best climate in the country so attracts lots of people in the twilight of their careers - for example some of the best lawyers I know work out of Victoria. They make considerably less money than they would working out of a larger centre but the lifestyle choice keeps them in the smaller community. This applies to many of the professions, and I suspect other ventures as well. I personally find the pace too slow and the opportunities too limiting, however others do not.

In Ontario terms Victoria is a bit similar to London from my limited knowledge of London and Toronto.