Relocating To Manitoba

oneLoneNurse · May 3, 2009

I see no reason to relocate to Winnipeg because cost of living is too high in TO. Just go west to Guelp or KW.

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 3, 2009

moved to the Canadian forum

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 3, 2009

I lived in Winnipeg for 15years. It's one of the most affordable cities in the country. Housing prices are relatively stable all the time. A friend from here (just north of Edmonton) sold his small, nondescript house here and bought a much larger, newer, nicer one in Winnipeg and had enough money left over to pay for the move and a ton of new furniture. You can get a very nice, modern home in a good part of the city for well under $300,000. (When we moved here we paid 26% more for a much smaller, not as nice house that was a LOT farther away from work!) There are really nice neighbourhoods that are close to everything. I'm partial to the southwest part of the city, since that's where I lived but there are good schools and low crime rates in all quadrants. We lived in South River Heights, an established neighbourhood within a 20 minute drive of four acute care hospitals and no more than 35 minutes to the other three. Public transit was literally footsteps away.

There is still a significant shortage of nurses in Manitoba. Being a new grad might be a bit of a drawback, but if you're interested in a full time position you should be able to find one. The Health Sciences Centre and St Boniface General Hospital are the two tertiary care hospitals; the Grace, the Victoria, the Concordia and Seven Oaks are community hospitals and the Misericordia is an urgent care/continuing care centre. I drove by the Mis on my way to my job at Children's, which is part of the Health Sciences Centre complex. Depending on what you're looking for, you could apply to any or all of them.

Prepare yourself for extremes of weather. It gets very cold there in the winter and VERY hot there in the summer. It's usually windy, and in the spring there's a risk of flooding in some areas of the city. Where we were, the risk was mainly sewer back-ups because the storm and wastewater sewers were combined. Nothing that a few backflow valves can't handle.

I've been back to visit six times in six years and there are things I really miss. You could do a lot worse than Winnipeg.

Fiona59 · May 3, 2009

The original post is over a year old. Since then the OP has asked for advice on moving to BC, Edmonton, Boston, NYC, London ON.

I wonder if she's made her mind up?

Joyce22 · May 6, 2009

Fiona59

You don't need to sound sarcastic. Anyway, I have made up my mind and I was lucky to get a job with a tertiary hospital in the Fed. Capital