Re: Healthcare since some seemed obsessed with it.
1. If you go to the emergency department with a sprained ankle or the flu, you MAY (depending on how busy they are) have to wait hours to be seen
2. If you go to the emergency department with an actual life threatening emergency, you will be seen immediately
BTW I am speaking from personal experience - sprained ankle (3 hour wait; asthma attack - 1 minute)
How does this compare to the U.S. I have no idea? I would assume that emergency departments there practice triage too.
Other:
IF you need a non-emergency procedure done, you may have to wait longer than you would like (e.g. A friend had to wait nearly a year for a hip replacement).
On the plus side, most drugs are a lot cheaper here.
There are good things about healthcare in Canada and there are bad things (Nowhere near as bad as I have seen some ill-informed commentators describe it but it sure isn't perfect.)
Personally if I were you, I would move to Montreal. It is an interesting cosmopolitan city with lots to do and you will get a lot of French practice - oh and the food is GREAT! Except for more snow and being a bit colder, the winters are not that much worse than New York (A LOT more snow though).

LOL, SallyCanuck!

We saw Barbarian Invasion when we were in Montreal :D

I guess medical facilities are all a part of relocating but when someone is young and healthy, I don't think it is a the top of their list of priorities..
Actually, in our recent moves, big moves, the only one I worried about was when we were talking about the idea of moving to Mexico..I wanted to know about doctors and hospitals !

My sons (in their 30s) spent their teen years in high school in Montreal, one went to University there - they still love it and go there as often as they can - one for the nightlife.

So, Melissa, you had to make a decision by the 4th - so what was it?

OK and of course I did not talk about the big Taboo....Language...

First of all your kids will not be allowed to go to English school if you have kids and did you know that signs in English are illegal in Quebec, that includes bi-lingual signs.

More over depending what industry you will be working in there is a subtle undertoe of racism or actually linguism, against anglo speaking people.

Also right after you make a big Real Estate investment in your next home you will be faced front and forward with the threat of another referendum, which in itself will divide family friends and co-workers for six months and affect the re-sale value of your home.

But for all this crap I still wouldn't live anywhere else, except of course for NEW YORK....which makes this post hilarious because I have a job interview in Long Island next week, so I'll trade ya!!!!!!

Good luck! oneillchris :)

I think emefleur is not so concerned about children right now and she says she does speak French..so perhaps we are getting ahead of things here LOL

Actually I think oneillchris may be oversimplifying with regards to the school debate. Granted there are severe (and rather undemocratic and unconstitutional) restrictions against sending a child to the school in the language of his or her choice, but I believe that if you can prove that the child was schooled in English throughout his/her life thus far, there may be a way to get into the English system. There are numerous loopholes (you may want to look up Brent Tyler, a human rights attorney who specializes in such cases), and with the Quebec Liberals in power now, applying the unconstitutional language laws may be a little more lax than if you wait 'till 2008 and the separatist/socialist parti quebecois gets elected.

A read through these posts tells a lot of useful anecdotal information, but it also reveals how easy it is for people to post inaccurate information, covering the range from perhaps innocent mistakes to blatant lies. This would be a more useful site if people didn’t spread lies or at least did a bit of homework first before making posts. But I agree many of the more innocuous anecdotes can be useful to get the flavour of Montreal. I live in Victoria, BC, having spent many years in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Jose, CA, Vancouver, BC, and Montreal.

Let’s deal with those lies first:

1. Someone posts “English are illegal in Quebec, that includes bi-lingual signs”. Wrong. Quebec Bill 86 of 1993 provides that English is allowed on outdoor commercial signs only if the French lettering is at least twice as large as the English.

2. Another assertion with respect to taxation is “First cut your salary in two, my american friends always tell me there in the 50% bracket, ie the first 20 at 15% the next at etc etc etc, here we mean divide your salary in two.” Again WRONG. Canada and Quebec have progressive, or graduated, income tax systems just like in the good ol’ USA, with a personal exemption and very low rates for low income earners. More details are as easy as a Google search away, so this kind of post is completely absurd. See Canada Revenue Agency at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-e.html

3. Not a lie, but an interesting assertion that Quebec is some kind of repressive socialist state: “Sometimes this socialization will drive you nuts like even our liquor stores are government run, so prices are jacked up as taxation.” Guess some other places that have exclusively state run liquor stores? Montana (big bastion of socialism there!), Utah (socialist again!), Virginia, and Washington state. By the way, you can buy wine and beer in any Quebec grocery store or dépanneur, or convenience store.

4. “Yes Canada is very socialized as far as health care but you may wait 12 hours in emergency to see a doctor.” This is a baseless assertion. The Supreme Court of Canada has accepted that Quebec has problems with waiting lists for some NON-EMERGENCY procedures, such as routine hip replacement. I have a question for someone who would make such a baseless rant. Canadians have a life expectance of 80 years while American have a life expectancy of 77. Not a big difference, granted. But I’d like to know where do those numbers reflect all the Canadians’ “dying in the streets” because of their liberal pinko commi socialist medical system and America’s success with a for-profit health insurance system?

5. The city of Atlanta’s population is about 425,000. Montreal’s is 1,583,590. ‘Nuff said. Yes, Atlanta’s metro area is bigger, 4.7 million to Montreal’s 3.6 million. But do Atlanta’s sprawling suburbs give Montreal a small-town atmosphere in comparison? This is just plain silly.

6. Some brings up social security as a concern before spending working years in Montreal. Please check out U.S.-Canadian Social Security Agreement. Yes, there’s been a treaty in place for years—it was signed in 1981.

Just a thought to depart with, respecting French language. Montreal is first a French speaking city, then an English speaking city, then a city of other world languages. Why if you are an English speaker at home (so your kids have English as their first language) and are going to move to, and make your life in Quebec, would you not your kids to go to French school so they can be fluently bilingual?

Hey Living in Victoria I dont even think you should be allowed an opinion on the subject. Furthemore Below I have posted an extraction of the french charter and you will see the last paragraph most certainly limits these rights.

Ergo.....
58. Public signs and posters and commercial advertising must be in French.

They may also be both in French and in another language provided that French is markedly predominant.

However, the Government may determine , by regulation, the places, cases, conditions or circumstances where public signs and posters and commercial advertising must be in French only, where French need not be predominant or where such signs, posters and advertising may be in another language only

So you see that normally speaking these rules are applied that signs which are interior and even being well within a store or place of establishment qualify for bilingual signs.

Again when the original poster compares the ceiling at which he will obtain 50% tax bracket in US which is close to 200k
versus the lower canadian version.

For goodness sake you sound like such a provincial, scared and ignorant of everything but your own insular surroundings.

Why don't you get off your *** and go have alook?