We’re back in Moncton for the holidays. It’s been wonderful to drive around, admiring Christmas lights (way to go on the spirit, folks!) and checking out the homes we’ve been keeping an eye on over the ‘net. We skulk around on MLS every couple of days, fine-tuning our list of wants and watching what goes on sale. We’d hoped to actually meet with an agent while we were home, but there’s just not enough time (I’m only in town for 2 business days – have to keep on to the Cape to visit the rest of the family). I’m forecasting a real estate pilgrimage in the spring.
It’s mostly been a visit full of reassurance, feeling like we’ve made the right decision. This place suits us. Geographically, it’s a great spot to have as home base in terms of having friends and family spread around the Maritimes and the rest of the country. One side of the family will be close at hand, the other not too far away – in fact, a few hours’ drive seems awfully close after escaping Toronto’s snowmaggedon (which I’ve found out is not recognized by spell-check, but did surface as a term in an official Environment Canada release.) The housing market still looks perfect for our wants and our budget, there are friends around to socialize with, and the pace of life just seems right.
The part of the trip that hasn’t been fully reassuring has been on the job front. I’m still feeling okay about our chances; we’ll each have degrees that are specialized, but widely applicable. But since arriving I’ve listened to the stories of two different young women moving back to the province who are finding things less than rosy. One is a nurse – a job that seems to be in demand here. Every time I look at online job boards, there seem to be several listings. Granted, I’m not in the field and don’t check into the specifics of each posting, so I know I don’t understand the ins and outs of the types of nurses that are needed. But you would think given the apparent shortage, the province would be working to help make it easier for anyone with some type of nursing degree to move back. The opposite seems to be happening to a former classmate of my beau. She went overseas to England, earned a nursing degree, and has been working for several years. Now she’s trying to move home – and is being told her degree is for a speciality that New Brunswick doesn’t have, so she’s not eligible to work here unless she goes back to school. I can understand the province having certain criteria that they’ve set, but from what I’ve learned of this situation, there just seems to be a lot of red tape that isn’t a Christmas bow wrapped around a job.
The other story I’ve heard since coming home this holiday is about a young woman who recently moved back from Fort McMurray because she and her partner had a child and wanted to raise him here. Noble reasons; it’s the same kind of decision I would make – we’re just doing it before anyone comes toddling along. She came back with hopes of easily finding a job she could fill, after 6 years of experience working out West. After searching without any luck, she’s ended up taking a 12-week dog grooming course in Moncton while her folks in Caraquet watch her little fella; Dad is still out in Ft Mac, finishing up his contract with one of the oil companies. Her plan is to open her own business when her course is done; again, a noble goal that I hope works out, but it can be a tough go starting a new business in any economic climate, let alone the one we’re heading into in the New Year. And it’s not just work; she’s having trouble adjusting to the changes in the availability of doctors and other services, compared to out West.
It’s disheartening to hear two stories of folks in basically the same boat as us running into roadblocks when it comes to moving back to New Brunswick. It hasn’t changed our minds at all; we’re still coming, we’re still searching the job boards all the time while we wrap things up in Toronto, we’re still saving and looking at real estate listings. Let’s just hope we’re not wearing rose-coloured glasses heading into 2009.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year everyone!
I don’t really know much about economics, and this next statement has nothing to do with actual financial pros and cons – but I miss having the HST at 15%. Living in Ontairo this year has forced me again to do math when it comes time to tip waitstaff. When you get a bill at a pub here, there’s the 5% GST and the 8% PST on the food you order. There’s also a special 10% liquor tax on your drinks, in addition to the 5% GST you’re charged. Me, I’d rather some just put a simple 15% tax on it all together so I have a guide for how much to tip! (It really became apparent how hard it is to do the math when we ate lunch yesterday. The whole computer system had gone down – we actually were given a hand-written bill on a piece of blank paper. It took the staff awhile to figure it out, then it was given to us with just the food and liquor totals – the taxes weren’t listed separately. It’s a good thing one of us continued with calculus in university!)
But it looks like I might get my wish, moving back to New Brunswick. The province is in the midst of trying to restructure the tax system. The idea that seems to be getting the most attention right now – putting the provincial tax up 2%, making the HST 15% again. From a purely non-economic point of view, I approve. But obviously it’s about a lot more than making it easier to give an etiquette-appropriate tip.
Along with this tax increase – which the province says would make a $1.50 cup of coffee go up 3cents, or add an extra $400 to the price tag of your new $20,000 car – you’d also get a flat income tax rate of 10%.
There’s also a proposal to offer a child care benefit of $600 each year for everyone under six years old. That’s in addition to a non-refundable child tax credit; it would apparently reduce your income tax payable per child up to $400 a year. So, you could sell that as savings of $1,000 for each child who isn’t yet in school. That could buy about 3,000 diapers, or around 2 months of day care (depending on how old your child is and where you live). I’d imagine some people would be mighty happy about that!
Those in favour of the changes say New Brunswickers will end up with lower taxes. It’s just that you’ll only see that on paper in front of you once a year, instead of every day. The first reaction of most people is to say no to higher taxes. My first reaction is to see the silver lining – easier to calculate the tip again! I’m also interested in the increase in child benefits. But I don’t really know enough to grasp the ins and outs of the income, corporate and property tax changes that are all being considered, so I’m not sure if I can say whether I think the whole plan is really going to improve things. Economists seem to be torn, too. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the folks making the final decision think – which isn’t that long; the government is set to give its response on Wednesday.
This post isn’t so much about the challenges of moving home, but more about some of the reasons why we want to come back.
It was snowing last night. Big, fat, fluffy white snowflakes – the best kind! I love Christmas; it really is the best time of the year. I think what really makes it magic is that everyone acts just a little bit more like a kid – in a good way. People seem quicker to smile, to hug, to share what little they might have. You can be full of hope and wonder and optimism for the New Year. It means a lot to me that we’re moving to a community that embraces the holidays so fully.
We watched Christmas Daddies today – gotta love cable! I was able to see the first hour or two of the Cape Breton show, and then the rest of the Halifax feed. What an amazing year for generosity! It’s wonderful to see how much money and spirit smaller communities can raise – an annual radiothon here in Toronto on Friday ended with a final amount around $160,000. Maritimes gave more than 5 times that today!
Moncton holds it own when it comes to the parade, too. It’s the biggest in Atlantic Canada, and third in the country. Toronto claims to have the world’s oldest and largest Santa Claus Parade. I’ve been to both, now; Toronto this year, Moncton two years ago. I have to say, I liked the Moncton one better! The floats had more connection to the community, more schools and Scout troops and those sorts of groups involved. Toronto’s floats were almost entirely big corporations – not that they can’t have holiday spirit and community ties, but there’s just something more appealing to me in the smaller organizations’ efforts. Sort of like the difference between a store bought card and a homemade child’s creation. Me, I always go for the handcrafted.
Six months. That’s how long we have until we leave Toronto and Return to Moncton.
It’s funny the different reactions we get when we say we’re moving. People who know me from before I moved to Toronto aren’t surprised I’m heading back East – but I think they’re a little shocked that it’s Moncton. I lived there for almost a year before … and let’s just say that wasn’t the high point of my life. I think even most people who know me from living in Toronto expected me to go home at some point – or just haven’t gotten used to me being part of the scenery here yet. It’s only been 11 months.
It’s different from him. He’s been here almost 5 years – and is surrounded daily by people landing jobs at the big consulting firms and corporate headquarters. He often gets an incredulous, "Why?" when we tell people we’ve moving to Moncton. Some people seem to understand a bit once he explains his family is there – parents, brothers, grandparents, high school friends. Then his usual explanation: "I want to own a garage before I’m 40 – and that ain’t happening in Toronto!" But there still seems to be a glint of "that’s too bad, what a waste" in their eyes.
I think the move is easier on me, in some ways. People don’t question my motives as much (except when it’s folks back home, wondering why I’m stopping in New Brunswick and not keeping on past the Canso Causeway). And I’ve spent a good part of my adult life and my career in the Maritimes. I know the optimism that’s blossomed in some areas, the opportunities that are available. He’s gotta take my word on that.
Any move would have its challenges, and while I’m sure Moncton has a lot of them in store for us, I do think it’s going to work out just fine. We just need to find jobs, get a mortgage, buy a house, make some new friends, and pay off tens of thousands of dollars in debt. What could go wrong?
Can we “be … in this place?” The New Brunswick government says it wants 6,000 people to move to the province in 2009. We’re going to be two of them. I’m a 30-something professional journalist, originally from Cape Breton. He’s a Riverview boy, coming home with an engineering degree and an MBA with the ink still wet. We’re looking to find good jobs, buy a house, build a life, and raise a family. This is our story, and our experiment to see if New Brunswick is as easy to move home to as everyone hopes.
