00;00;06;00 - 00;00;24;25
Lindsay
Hey there. I got some questions for you. Are you done living in overcrowded city where housing is unaffordable? Commutes are just too long, and your quality of life is not quite what you expected it to be. Are you thinking of relocating or even emigrating to get away from it all? Well, if you said yes to any of these questions, look no further, my friend.

00;00;25;00 - 00;00;43;04
Lindsay
You have found the podcast where you will learn about affordable communities that hosts a quality of life that is second to none. Join me as I speak with people from across the beautiful prairies who have made this part of Canada their home and at the same time discover career opportunities, recreational activities and other reasons that make living on the prairies so great.

00;00;43;06 - 00;01;17;12
Lindsay
If this sounds like something that sparks your interest in, stick around. I am your host, Lindsay Rubeniuk, and you are listening to Life on the Prairies podcast. Why, hello my friends, and thank you so much for sticking around as I set out on my new Life on the Prairies podcast series, I had decided that before we jump into profiling the communities on the Prairies, I think we should take a look at the provinces that make up the prairies in Canada.

00;01;17;16 - 00;01;40;21
Lindsay
So let me introduce you to our first province, Alberta. Now, let's start with the first reason why I consider Alberta to be one of the best provinces. And it is truly because of my favorite people in the world live here in Alberta, and they are my brother who grew up in Manitoba and his wife, who emigrated five years ago to Canada from the United States.

00;01;40;28 - 00;02;05;05
Lindsay
Now, let's put this in perspective. My brother relocated to Alberta as he was offered a great job opportunity starting out in the oil and gas. He technically worked in a lab as a scientist and soon worked his way up into being a successful account manager. Well, my sister in law, or as I call her, my favorite little newcomer, Emily, works as a speech pathologist.

00;02;05;07 - 00;02;29;10
Lindsay
Now, let's pause right here, because I think there are some very big insights I want to share with you about people who are looking at immigrating to Canada, even though they could have came here through the common law, spousal sponsorship stream, she elected to come through the federal skilled worker pathway. She did this because she has several things going for her, such as her age, her education, her language and work experience.

00;02;29;12 - 00;02;53;27
Lindsay
She chose to immigrate to western Canada not only because my brother was living here, but because, well, there were some really great job opportunities. Now, if my memory serves me correctly, she actually applied for 18 speech pathologist jobs and was offered 17 of those jobs. And what she applied for here, if you did hear me correctly. She was offered 17 of those positions.

00;02;53;29 - 00;03;30;29
Lindsay
So I feel this is a perfect opening to my series about how someone relocating from another province can relocate to another province and be very successful, as well as someone who wants to emigrate to Canada, who decides to emigrate to the prairies and lives a great job. These two now both enjoy a great quality of life and recently they actually purchased a home, a three bedroom and two bath house in a lovely neighborhood in the city of Edmonton for about $350,000 less than the average house cost in Canada.

00;03;31;02 - 00;03;56;26
Lindsay
Yeah, let me say that again. They bought a house in a lovely neighborhood for about $350,000 less than the average house costs in Canada. So I want to thank the city of Edmonton for providing such a great quality of life for my family that's not only affordable and offers great employment opportunities, but as well as provides fun recreational activities as well.

00;03;56;28 - 00;04;18;10
Lindsay
All right, so enough about my family and how they're having a wonderful time living and working in Alberta. I just want you to remember that one of them relocated and the other emigrate, and they both have been very successful. Now, besides being a chemist, an account manager, or a speech pathologist, what other jobs are there in Alberta? Well, here we go.

00;04;18;12 - 00;04;40;23
Lindsay
I would like to note that the face of Alberta's labor has been changing. And the two sectors that I have seen, the largest increases in in terms of job postings when I read is health care as well as the trades. However, like everywhere in Canada, health care is always high in demand, where the trades have seen the most growth here actually in Alberta than anywhere else in Canada.

00;04;40;29 - 00;05;12;26
Lindsay
I am going to do a whole podcast, maybe even to about the trades and how people now make just as much, if not more, than professionals such as accountants, lawyers and doctors make. And I also want to say that if you are a tradesperson, this may just be the province for you. Now, for example, according to the Calgary Construction Association, they believe right now that about one in four, let's say 25% of job vacancies in the Calgary business region are either skilled trades or related white collar support roles.

00;05;13;02 - 00;05;51;15
Lindsay
If we look at this, are currently 30,000 jobs available around the city of Calgary, and 7500 of those jobs are related to the construction industry. So there's so much opportunity for those people who have a ticket in the trades or those with a college education. So it could be a one or two year diploma. Let's just say that people who have taken an apprenticeship leave their four or three year programs with absolutely no that they're earning while they're learning, and they often find jobs that are secured or they can own businesses where they can make a high income and their future is bright.

00;05;51;17 - 00;06;16;13
Lindsay
However, don't worry, my university friends, I got you covered as well. And just to note, in terms of university degrees, so on and so forth, that business intelligence and data analysis are very high in demand as well as our usual ones, such as nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers. Those will always be high in demand. I want to, however, also focus in on the hospitality and tourism industry.

00;06;16;20 - 00;06;38;13
Lindsay
And it is huge here in Alberta. And if you have to ask why, I want you to get on Google Maps and I want you to look up the province, Alberta, and you will see that the Canadian Rockies are in the province of Alberta, and this therefore makes the province of Alberta one of the major tourist hotspots in our entire country.

00;06;38;15 - 00;07;05;25
Lindsay
We have such a high demand for people to stay, live and work in the tourism industry in Alberta that the government of Alberta recently opened up a tourism and hospitality food, beverage, immigration stream. And this is open to anyone that currently that has a work permit that currently works in the province of Alberta for a tourism employer. And of course, the tourism employer has to qualify for different things as well.

00;07;06;02 - 00;07;40;19
Lindsay
But they have such a shortage of workers that they opened up a program specifically to help current workers in the province of Alberta to emigrate to their province so they have long term secure employment and they can become permanent residents of our country. All right. So having said all that, if you are a recent graduate and another province of Canada and you would like a tourism job, this is also a great opportunity for you to come and experience the tourism and hospitality industry in closing the career aspects in this province.

00;07;40;24 - 00;08;02;04
Lindsay
Just always remember that Alberta wages are usually the highest in Canada, and as I mentioned, the housing prices are not near those in other areas of Canada and our jobs are plentiful here. You just have to be willing to relocate or emigrate and you will find all the work you want. My friend.

00;08;02;07 - 00;08;30;23
Lindsay
Alberta has some really great facts and I want to share a couple of them with you. So the first one is Alberta has no health care premiums. The second one is they have zero provincial sales tax and their average cost of rent is only $1,266. Another really cool fact is that Alberta families earned a median income last year of $104,000 after tax.

00;08;30;24 - 00;08;57;29
Lindsay
Whereas if you look at other Canadian families across Canada, they earn, I believe it is, $92,000 of median income after their tax. And going back to the housing situation is that you can own a house in one of the two major cities for as little as, let's say, 400 and 450,000 very nice houses. I must say, in Edmonton, you can actually own four homes for the same price as one in Vancouver.

00;08;58;02 - 00;09;25;09
Lindsay
Let's repeat that. You can own four homes that are similar for the same price as one similar house in Vancouver. And let me tell you, you don't have to be a charter professional accountant to tell me that's a heck of a deal. So let's say you're someone that's really interested in getting one of these positions within the province of Alberta, and you're thinking, well, you would like to first study, go to school.

00;09;25;14 - 00;09;58;13
Lindsay
Well, I got that covered, too. And so if you are looking for a post-secondary opportunities, B.A., if you are from within Canada or you are a potential international students, there is 26 university colleges that you can choose from. I'd like to point out there, there is two Polytechnic Institute that I really enjoy and as a career consultant, I've sent a number of people to them and they are the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, and the other is the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, NAIT in Edmonton.

00;09;58;15 - 00;10;26;07
Lindsay
And what I really love about these institutes is they offer certificates, diplomas of high degrees, apprenticeships and continuing education programs that are related to trades and technical work. And my clients make nine times out of ten are even more get positions in the field that they study. So to me, that is a huge win that these types of colleges offer you for minimal investment, a really great return on your investment.

00;10;26;10 - 00;10;50;20
Lindsay
And my friends, do not worry, there is so much to see and do when you are not working that just log on to Alberta dossier and it will tell you about stuff you can do in the Canadian Rockies such as hike, ski, canoe, or you can travel down to southern Alberta and you can ride horses, visit ranches. You can even participate in the Calgary Stampede race.

00;10;50;20 - 00;11;15;20
Lindsay
I know that Alberta is considered a great destination when traveling because it has a lot of diversity, it has a lot of spirit and, of course, charm. So if you are looking for things to do, you know when you aren't working, you will never have a problem with finding something to do. You can always be active.

00;11;15;23 - 00;11;45;00
Lindsay
Let me dispel a final matter. But Alberta, it is not just cold and snowy. It is far from that. It actually has four distinct seasons from hot summers of up to, let's say, plus 40 degrees to snowy winters and everything in between. It's because of that we have. So that's wide and great recreational activities. Now, having said all this, I want to end my podcast with the theme of tourism as I think it will relate to immigration are relocating to Alberta.

00;11;45;03 - 00;12;14;23
Lindsay
So if you are someone that seems to me from abroad or you are someone in a major urban center in Canada, you're just looking to get away from it all. I invite you to make Alberta your next destination holiday and check out this magnificent province. And when you come here, take note of the wonderful communities that we have of the great job opportunities and the educational facilities we have and the affordable cost of living.

00;12;14;26 - 00;12;46;11
Lindsay
The affordable housing is what makes it very unique as well. And you have such great paying jobs that it just is so obvious that if people are looking to begin a new life or want to start a great life in Alberta, is that so? When you can tell about a four year visit? I also encourage you to bring an extra suitcase or two because you, my friend, just might be staying permanently away from these dusty country roads.

00;12;46;14 - 00;13;06;28
Lindsay
Well, that's a wrap, my friends. Short and sweet as always, and make you so much for joining me. I appreciate the time you've spent with me. And if you know of anyone that's looking to relocate within Canada or immigrate to one of our wonderful prairie provinces, feel free to pass along my podcast to them. Also, if you want to get to know more about me, Lindsay Rubeniuk.

00;13;07;01 - 00;13;24;13
Lindsay
Feel free to log on to my web page at 100 Meridian Dossier, or you can follow me on my Facebook page at 100 million Immigration or even on Instagram. I will leave all those things for you in the show notes as well as the topics we spoke about today. They will definitely be some links there for you as well.

00;13;24;19 - 00;13;27;24
Lindsay
Until we meet next to my friend, live rural, live well.