Moving in Cada - Information about Toronto, OH

[Nasosdem]

So, I asked a few months ago, some information about Canada because I was thinking moving there from Greece:
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/659619-moving-to-canada/

Now, I am almost ready and prepared to do the big move! The place I chose is Toronto, and I will move in a few months.

I need some information about Toronto though, and because I am tech geek, I need to know Internet Speeds there, as well if there is a PC Hardware Search Engine, so I can find the cheapest new hardware I want. We have one here at Greece which we call Skroutz, and it's API connected to many online stores. That's what I need. I know about PC Part Picker, but I am interested more in this search engine so I can find smartphones/laptops/gadgets etc.

I also want you to tell me about ISPs in Canada, I found one called "Beanfield" which gives Fiber Optic up to 500Mbps, unlimited data in Ohio for 75$ US (~100 CAD). Is it a good ISP? I will surely need unlimited data, especially since I leave my family/girlfriend back here, to Skype with them. Also, high-speeds will be a dream for me. Average speed in Greece is 8Mbps, but I have 12Mbps.  

Lastly, can you confirm me that IT Technicians start salary is about 2500 CAD, rents are at 500-1000 CAD including utility, and life cost for 1 person is less than 2000 CAD? I don't care about going out or vacations, since I will be alone there, I will just be spending huge about of times on my PC.  

I know I ask much about tech, and I should ask more about life, but already know about that. And also, because at Greece I am creator of a community with 30k people only about tech, with Site/YT Channel, I will need to continue doing my hobby too (in Greece, finding sponsors is very hard).

Thank you all in advance. Please no huge answers.

[Nasosdem]

OMG GREAT KEYBOARD. It wrote cada. ._.

[Mug]

Have you got a visa and stuff like that?
 Like moving to Canada may not be the best idea now due to issues with their economy too. If I wanted a job in IT, I'd move to London.

[Nasosdem]

13 hours ago, Mug said:

Have you got a visa and stuff like that?
 Like moving to Canada may not be the best idea now due to issues with their economy too. If I wanted a job in IT, I'd move to London.

Everything is planned, and preparations are being made.
I know their economy, and how Canada works, and I want to go there. I have thought about London, but no, I don't want to go there. I don't want to stay inside Europe anymore.

[h3F8LV4R2Ngf]

I live in Toronto and work for a technology company.

 

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I also want you to tell me about ISPs in Canada, I found one called "Beanfield" which gives Fiber Optic up to 500Mbps, unlimited data in Ohio for 75$ US (~100 CAD). Is it a good ISP? I will surely need unlimited data, especially since I leave my family/girlfriend back here, to Skype with them.

Internet speeds vary by provider but as a general rule you'll be able to get 50mbit/s just about anywhere in the city out to the suburbs for somewhere near $50. Higher speeds are available but not universally. At the high-end you can expect to pay $100–$150/month for between 300mbit and 1gb/s depending on what's available in your neighbourhood.

 

Beanfield is an excellent provider but there's a very small chance you'll be able to have access to them. They're available in < 75 apartment buildings through-out the city. The highest concentration is over in Liberty Village but I know there are a couple on Front street too. Worse, many apartment buildings are signing exclusive multi-year contracts with a single provider. For example, the new towers on Bloor near Bay can only use Rogers for an internet connection. Many of the buildings in City place sold exclusivity deals to Bell or Telus: you can't shop around for providers in those buildings. You should also expect metered internet as the default but some providers will let you pay an additional ~$20/month for an unmetered connection.

 

If you have access to Beanfield then that's great, but I find most of my friends are opting for TekSavy: a reseller on the Rogers network if they have a choice of provider in their building. Trying to pick an internet provider without actually living here isn't going to work. Heck, even if you do live here there's a good chance the building you want to live in won't have any units available in your price range. The rental market, especially down town is competitive and it can be difficult to find a place to live even if you aren't constrained by price. If you have a room mate you may not be able to negotiate what internet provider you have at all.

 

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Lastly, can you confirm me that IT Technicians start salary is about 2500 CAD,

This is going to depend on where you work. I know our "front line tech support" staff (the guys who take your macbook back to the Apple store and help you fix your email settings) are clocking in $50-60k/year. I also know that the 'IT desk' at big-box electronics stores like Best-Buy are paying minimum wage: about $10/hour or maybe $1,600/month.

 

I'd hope that if you're moving to Canada and planning to live in Toronto that you'll have already lined up a job before you get here: the city can be frightening and lonely if you're penniless and unemployed. Negotiate a fair salary before you get here: $30k/year doesn't go as far as you'd hope, especially once you get done with taxes and mandatory deductions, you'll be left with about $2000/mo to spend. You may have additional deductions that aren't standard (e.g. taxable benefits like parking or an extended healthcare plan) that will further reduce your take-home pay too.

 

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rents are at 500-1000 CAD including utility

Maybe at Jane & Finch (a notoriously dangerous and run-down intersection), but where you live will influence things a lot. I think it's a lot more realistic to plan for $1000 for rent and another $500/month for expenses including transit, eating, and bills. The cost of living in Toronto isn't quite as bad as San Francisco or Manhattan, but it can be rough especially for somebody without the support of friends and family for unexpected emergencies.

 

I think the job you have will probably determine where you live. If you're working in the Fashion district it's really hard to get to work and back every day if you're living Rexdale so you'll probably move closer to downtown in order to avoid 3 hours of traffic each day. On the other hand, if you're not pulling down pretty good salary then you're not going to be able to afford more central locations like The Annex or King West even if you have a room mate in a small crappy apartment.

 

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, and life cost for 1 person is less than 2000 CAD

$2000 after taxes is enough that you probably won't starve to death but it's also going to be a pretty acetic lifestyle.

 

Your largest expense is going to be rent. If you have a room mate and share a small basement apartment you can expect to pay at least $800/month plus a 50% share of the bills which will run between $200 and $500/month. On top of that you'll have your personal expenses: insurance ($20/mo), cell phone ($35-$150/mo), transit pass ($150/mo), food/hygiene (at least $200/month), You can poke around on sites like rentfaster.ca to get a sense of what an apartment is going to cost. That leaves a little bit of 'play money' but there are also costs I haven't included (like clothing).

 

 

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I don't care about going out or vacations, since I will be alone there, I will just be spending huge about of times on my PC.

It seems like a shame to come to Canada, move to what is arguably the best city in the country and one of the top-10 in the western hemisphere and then not get out there and enjoy it. One of the reasons Toronto costs so much is because millions of people want to be here. Your rent is buying you access to things like the local Baseball team (nobody cares about the Leafs though), to the waterfront, the regular festivals, the thousands of restaurants, and endless hours of entertainment.

 

Not caring about vacations is fine: Toronto has plenty to do. Still, once you're here it's only about an hour worth of flight time to Montreal (which IMO is the 'coolest' city in Canada) or ~4 hours by train to Ottawa to tour the Capital. You can hop in your car at 9am and be in New York City for diner, or about the same to end up in Washington, DC—a town made for tourists because almost everything is free. The idea that you'd move thousands of kilometres to a pretty amazing part of the world and then sit alone in a basement watching youtube videos and playing video games seems unfortunate. To each their own I guess.

[bossman1]

You need a work visa to work in Canada, otherwise you are taking away jobs from rightful Canadians.

Toronto has some very sketchy area's, more so then Vancouver.

[AshleyAshes]

With property prices rapidly rising in Canada, apartment rental prices are rising with it.  I have a decent one bedroom apartment, in an old building, in a quiet Jewish community, and while I pay $1140/mo + Electricity, a new tenant right now would pay $1317+Electricity to move into a one bedroom in my building.

 

...And that's why I'm not moving for some time, you can jack the price all you want between tenants, but the government restricts how much the rent can go up year over year for an existing tenant.

[Nasosdem]

20 hours ago, h3F8LV4R2Ngf said:

I live in Toronto and work for a technology company.

 

Internet speeds vary by provider but as a general rule you'll be able to get 50mbit/s just about anywhere in the city out to the suburbs for somewhere near $50. Higher speeds are available but not universally. At the high-end you can expect to pay $100–$150/month for between 300mbit and 1gb/s depending on what's available in your neighbourhood.

 

Beanfield is an excellent provider but there's a very small chance you'll be able to have access to them. They're available in < 75 apartment buildings through-out the city. The highest concentration is over in Liberty Village but I know there are a couple on Front street too. Worse, many apartment buildings are signing exclusive multi-year contracts with a single provider. For example, the new towers on Bloor near Bay can only use Rogers for an internet connection. Many of the buildings in City place sold exclusivity deals to Bell or Telus: you can't shop around for providers in those buildings. You should also expect metered internet as the default but some providers will let you pay an additional ~$20/month for an unmetered connection.

 

If you have access to Beanfield then that's great, but I find most of my friends are opting for TekSavy: a reseller on the Rogers network if they have a choice of provider in their building. Trying to pick an internet provider without actually living here isn't going to work. Heck, even if you do live here there's a good chance the building you want to live in won't have any units available in your price range. The rental market, especially down town is competitive and it can be difficult to find a place to live even if you aren't constrained by price. If you have a room mate you may not be able to negotiate what internet provider you have at all.

 

This is going to depend on where you work. I know our "front line tech support" staff (the guys who take your macbook back to the Apple store and help you fix your email settings) are clocking in $50-60k/year. I also know that the 'IT desk' at big-box electronics stores like Best-Buy are paying minimum wage: about $10/hour or maybe $1,600/month.

 

I'd hope that if you're moving to Canada and planning to live in Toronto that you'll have already lined up a job before you get here: the city can be frightening and lonely if you're penniless and unemployed. Negotiate a fair salary before you get here: $30k/year doesn't go as far as you'd hope, especially once you get done with taxes and mandatory deductions, you'll be left with about $2000/mo to spend. You may have additional deductions that aren't standard (e.g. taxable benefits like parking or an extended healthcare plan) that will further reduce your take-home pay too.

 

Maybe at Jane & Finch (a notoriously dangerous and run-down intersection), but where you live will influence things a lot. I think it's a lot more realistic to plan for $1000 for rent and another $500/month for expenses including transit, eating, and bills. The cost of living in Toronto isn't quite as bad as San Francisco or Manhattan, but it can be rough especially for somebody without the support of friends and family for unexpected emergencies.

 

I think the job you have will probably determine where you live. If you're working in the Fashion district it's really hard to get to work and back every day if you're living Rexdale so you'll probably move closer to downtown in order to avoid 3 hours of traffic each day. On the other hand, if you're not pulling down pretty good salary then you're not going to be able to afford more central locations like The Annex or King West even if you have a room mate in a small crappy apartment.

 

$2000 after taxes is enough that you probably won't starve to death but it's also going to be a pretty acetic lifestyle.

 

Your largest expense is going to be rent. If you have a room mate and share a small basement apartment you can expect to pay at least $800/month plus a 50% share of the bills which will run between $200 and $500/month. On top of that you'll have your personal expenses: insurance ($20/mo), cell phone ($35-$150/mo), transit pass ($150/mo), food/hygiene (at least $200/month), You can poke around on sites like rentfaster.ca to get a sense of what an apartment is going to cost. That leaves a little bit of 'play money' but there are also costs I haven't included (like clothing).

 

 

It seems like a shame to come to Canada, move to what is arguably the best city in the country and one of the top-10 in the western hemisphere and then not get out there and enjoy it. One of the reasons Toronto costs so much is because millions of people want to be here. Your rent is buying you access to things like the local Baseball team (nobody cares about the Leafs though), to the waterfront, the regular festivals, the thousands of restaurants, and endless hours of entertainment.

 

Not caring about vacations is fine: Toronto has plenty to do. Still, once you're here it's only about an hour worth of flight time to Montreal (which IMO is the 'coolest' city in Canada) or ~4 hours by train to Ottawa to tour the Capital. You can hop in your car at 9am and be in New York City for diner, or about the same to end up in Washington, DC—a town made for tourists because almost everything is free. The idea that you'd move thousands of kilometres to a pretty amazing part of the world and then sit alone in a basement watching youtube videos and playing video games seems unfortunate. To each their own I guess.

Well, I am planning to stay alone  1 year, and then brother and girlfriend will come too. So not big matters about that.

 Maybe Montreal is a better place to live? Should I plan Montreal as a moving  place?

[Nasosdem]

18 hours ago, bossman1 said:

You need a work visa to work in Canada, otherwise you are taking away jobs from rightful Canadians.

Toronto has some very sketchy area's, more so then Vancouver.

That sounds a bit racist...

I don't think I can work at Canada legally without a work visa either way..

[bossman1]

4 hours ago, Nasosdem said:

That sounds a bit racist

Thats the law!

[h3F8LV4R2Ngf]

7 hours ago, Nasosdem said:

Well, I am planning to stay alone  1 year, and then brother and girlfriend will come too. So not big matters about that.

 Maybe Montreal is a better place to live? Should I plan Montreal as a moving  place?

For what I pay for parking in downtown Toronto you can rent a 2-bedroom apartment in Montreal. It's certainly less expensive to live in there and you can get by pretty well as an anglophone  through-out most of the city. Montreal's public transit system is also considerably better than Toronto's and I tend to have more fun with the night-life over there (to the point that I'll fly out once or twice a month for the weekends during the summer). I think Montreal is more culturally interesting but if you're a fan of the "big city" vibe then Toronto is probably a better choice.

 

On the other hand, Montreal winters suck, the roads are terrible, the public healthcare system isn't nearly as nice, and the language barrier can be a problem for people who aren't bilingual once you venture North. Job prospects for the kind of work I do are significantly worse and even if I found a job I'd take a 30% pay-cut. Regional politics make the place a much tougher sell long-term. If I had to choose a place to live and I weren't as fortunate as I am, I'd choose somewhere else: Montreal, maybe Halifax. Toronto isn't an easy place to live if you haven't "made it".

 

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I don't think I can work at Canada legally without a work visa either way..

If you haven't sorted out an immigration path—and step #1 includes a visa—then you're unlikely to be taking up residence in Canada in "a couple of months".

 

I'm curious, what sort of preparation to move have you taken, what steps to immigration have you completed?

 

 

 

[Nasosdem]

15 hours ago, h3F8LV4R2Ngf said:

I'm curious, what sort of preparation to move have you taken, what steps to immigration have you completed?

 

 

 

Not much I can say to you, but all will be done with a little "help".

[AshleyAshes]

51 minutes ago, Nasosdem said:

Not much I can say to you, but all will be done with a little "help".

...Why is 'help' in scare quotes...?

[bossman1]

Not much of an advantage living in Quebec otherwise.

[Nasosdem]

On 15/1/2017 at 11:37 PM, AshleyAshes said:

...Why is 'help' in scare quotes...?

It's not scare quotes, at my country, it means I have help from person inside.. From someone who already live in Canada.

[bossman1]

Yes many scams can be pulled to help family and friends enter and skip out, or enter and legalize.

I find some "family" restaraunts change titles and names frequently yet still the same food served up. Adoption is another angle.