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Canada's surging cost of living fuels reverse immigration
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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Ya I'm 29 years old born in Canada and have a really good job but living here is starting to not look sustainable. A small bag of groceries here is like 100 dollars it's fucking mental. Rent starts at 2500. Gf and I are toying with the idea of relocating to Iceland, where the cost of living is actually lower and wages are higher lmao
Canada has essentially just become a housing pyramid scheme, actual work has become worthless
Iceland is in their own dumpster fire with housing. You're better off in continental Europe if you can get a visa. You also have the New Zealand working holiday option, which is a good time. I toyed with Iceland and have close friends there, it's rough to get housing, cost of living is expensive because everything is shipped in.
A pint of blueberries in Iceland which was shipped in is cheaper than if I go to the blueberry farm up the road from me and pick them myself
Not sure what you are paying but I checked a retail survey of fresh fruit and berries in Iceland and they are about 21g/$ CAD fresh where the current price of fresh organic blueberries is 36g/$ at my local Edmonton Walmart.
Iceland has a local blueberry harvest so not sure how that affects pricing but looks cheaper in Canada. Also upick are often priced above market now, its a family experience more than a way to get affordable food like when I was a kid. Just my two cents.
Good points, not sure where you checked prices though. Icelandic Costco is cheaper than the Costco here in Victoria for majority of items, and Bonus in Iceland is about on par with our grocery chains. Walmart in Canada might be cheaper than Costco in Iceland.
The funniest one to me was seeing cheaper motor oil in Iceland when we literally drill for that shit here haha
Meat in Iceland is way cheaper, same with dairy
Alcohol in Iceland is mad expensive, so is gas. Electronics are about the same. Restaurants in Iceland are like 3 times as expensive but I can't afford to eat out here anymore either.
If you are in Victoria, I get it; yikes...
That's a very specific economic environment which is different from "the average Canadian" so, yes, you are probably bang on.
Iceland, Interesting. I really want to visit but I never considered living there.
You like colder weather? Seems like there are other places that might be a little warmer?
The weather in Iceland is absolutely terrible. That is a definite downside. A lot of people who move to Iceland leave after their first winter. But because of that, talented folks in Iceland who do my line of work usually gtfo to mainland Europe, which is creating job openings that accept English speakers.
Iceland also has functional healthcare and no crime. You don't even have to lock your car. I am sick of not even trusting my neighbours here in Canada.
Iceland has a housing crisis too but I think we'd be making so much money it would be a non issue.
Weed is also super illegal and expensive in Iceland :(
Fight to make your country better! Otherwise, you'll just contribute to the creation/enlargement of the same problem in some other place. Natives do not want that and start being very wary of digital nomads because of this.
I'm not a digital nomad, it would be a permenant relocation. Iceland needs immigrants too
If you're moving to Iceland and working in Iceland, that's fair. Moving to Iceland and working for a US company, earning a US salary, that's not.
It's a losing battle.
People don't want the disparity in wealth to shrink, so it doesn't.
At some point we need to stop relying on others who don't want to solve these issues and start looking out for ourselves.
Don't leave Canada. It is freaken awesome there. I would love to go into semi-retirement there one day.
Haha retire in Canada, good one
I would love to stay here too but it's just not realistic anymore
Semi-retire. It is pretty common in my field. Some engineer who comes in one day a week or so on average as a consultant. There isn't exactly a shortage of chemical/factory operations there and the tech/standards you guys use is near identical.
In any case I am like +30 years from that so who knows what the situation will be.
Yeah if you save a bunch in the states then move here you could do it. What's impossible is working in Canada and trying to save, our salaries for engineering are probably less than half
Just to put things in perspective I am at the top pay scale at the university I work at and even working side jobs on the weekend I still can't buy my own apartment
The only good way to get ahead here is to play the real estate game but I missed the boat
Less than half but you aren't spending 10k a year on insurance that doesn't even work and 20k a year per kid to send them to higher ed. Not going to do me much good that I have a slightly bigger home when I get a quarter of a million dollar medical bill or want to help my daughters get a four year degree.
I don't think you've done your research. Yeah our healthcare is free, but it literally doesn't exist, people are dying of undiagnosed cancers because we have no doctors
I recently went across the border to see a doctor about an ear infection because I was going deaf and couldn't see a doc for weeks. So I paid out of pocket in addition to paying heavy tax for our "healthcare"
As for higher ed, we pay out the ass for that too...
I lived in the border for years. Whatever you have now is still got to be better than what we got. My hand was smashed by a falling beam, pretty nasty break. The only thing they would give me for pain was Tylenol. I had to go get me cannabis just so I could stop screaming and crying. I still have two wisdom teeth and yeah they hurt.
We don't have dental care, that's out of pocket here, just spent 4 grand on my wisdom teeth
However, I heard if they are life threatening (infected) a hospital must remove, in which case it's free
Still better
I mean we can debate this all we want but I don't even need to be convinced not to move to US haha. Iceland is superior to both countries
A university degree in Canada costs 16-20k CAD per year for tuition/books/etc, more if you're an international student. Plus residence fees and food and other costs of living if the student isn't staying at home and just commuting to university.
There's a reason Canada suffers from brain drain of so many of our skilled workers leaving. Other places, particularly the USA, are popular destinations because they are better opportunities economically.
I wanna hug a moose and flee from geese