IT contracts in Canada

[greypanda]

Greypanda, we are thinking of moving too. For more or less similar reasons

Let's keep in touch please

Sure where about in Canada you are looking to move? I am not considering Toronto as I don't want to move out from London and land in another London and face similar sort of problems i.e. housing, transport. I am considering Alberta especially Calgary or British Columbia

[greypanda]

This might also be noticed by anyone moving to the North of England.

North of England especially Yorkshire Dales is very beautiful and houses are affordable. However there are no contract roles out there and permanent salary compared to London is very less.

In Canada, I have noticed that the salary does not differ so much from city to city. Senior IT roles in Toronto pay around 120k CAD pretty much the same in Calgary. However, houses are much cheaper to rent out or purchase in Calgary compared to Toronto.

[stek]

North of England especially Yorkshire Dales is very beautiful and houses are affordable. However there are no contract roles out there and permanent salary compared to London is very less.

Quite a few in Harrogate and TSYS not far away, also Leeds and Bradford for work, rates seem to be similar to London now ie shiite. I'm staying in Dublin, all the work is coming here new due to Brexit, some silly rates flying about cos most of the Irish contractors are still heading to UK leaving a glut here...

My last perm job in Leeds was £65k, 2009/10 - I only lasted a year, fell out with boss and walked. Scottish tw@t....

So think again, sonny.

[greypanda]

I contracted in Canada on a PR. Was based in Vancouver. Job market is very different out there. Contracting is seen more as a temporary thing until you find a perm job.
As everyone out there does a tax return. Unlike our PAYE.
And Canadians prefer to meet face to face. So expect to network alot to land a role.
As for what you can earn that depends on your skills and experience.
Canada is a big country and you have to look at each province, Almost as seperate countries. What goes in BC will be very different to Ontario.
You can incorporate provincially or federally. And taxes are calculated seperately for both.
Out there it is known that the main places to work are Toronto Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.
And there was a saying "Canada is one of the biggest countries in the world and everyone lives in 5% of it!!'
Cost of living is dificult to compare to the UK.
But Food, insurance, property tax and health care costs more.
Comparing a new prefab house on the outskirts of calgary to a house in Surrey England is not a fair one.
You also have to compare costs of living based on what you can earn. Not as a tourist.
You also have to seriously look at the climate.
Calgary is cold in winter.I was driving to work in April and was listening to the weather for west canada and it said Calgary highs of -10c
We enjoyed our time in Canada but decided it was not going to work for us long term.
Oh also houses might look massive. When infact people rent out floors to help pay the bills. They are called duplexes or even fourplexes.

Would you say that you save more money in the UK than you were able to in Canada?

[mall]

Canada

Would you say that you save more money in the UK than you were able to in Canada?

Yes.
As wages (perm) and rates (contract) for me were less.
But that was not the only reason.
For us we just did not see the potential to do well out there.
But everyone is different.
If you go out there good luck and all the best.

[CoolCat]

"Big Data" whats that but big bulltulip, I would kill myself first before describing myself thus

Anyways for what its worth some real world experience, Vancouver is a viable location, it has a reasonable tech market, mainly because it is an overflow from Seatle and the Microsoft and associated businesses there

You see if the office space and so on is full in Seatle, they often move the work to Vancouver simply because its a short commuter flight away.

So Vancouver has kinda benefits just from being close by to Seatle, and a fairly short flight, and easy to do business there

But hey why listen anyone with real world experience

And as someone else said its more a lifestyle decision surely? In which case somewhere like New Zealand would be better...

[Lance]

Quite a few in Harrogate and TSYS not far away, also Leeds and Bradford for work, rates seem to be similar to London now ie shiite. I'm staying in Dublin, all the work is coming here new due to Brexit, some silly rates flying about cos most of the Irish contractors are still heading to UK leaving a glut here...

My last perm job in Leeds was £65k, 2009/10 - I only lasted a year, fell out with boss and walked. Scottish tw@t....

So think again, sonny.

Manchester is booming as well, just on the wrong side of the hills.
Houses in and around Bradford are very affordable and Bradford is an enormous area that extends into North Yorkshire and isn't bad for commuting (except London, although BA flights to Heathrow are cheaper than the train).

last perm job in the area £70k
last contract in the area £500/day

[CoolCat]

Manchester is booming as well, just on the wrong side of the hills.
Houses in and around Bradford are very affordable and Bradford is an enormous area that extends into North Yorkshire and isn't bad for commuting (except London, although BA flights to Heathrow are cheaper than the train).

last perm job in the area £70k
last contract in the area £500/day

Bradford was once nice

Nowadays it would be impossible, especially if you had kids you needed to find schools for, the race relations in the area are very problematic, and there are definitely "no go" areas that the police have given up on

[bazzawatson]

Wage?

Google.

Define:wage

"a fixed regular payment earned for work or services, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis"

I see no issue with 'wage' by that definition. Some people seem to go into a frenzy in relation to the terminology required to be a 'good contractor'. Similar shock expressions below.
Job?
Employer?
Salary?

[northernladuk]

Google.

Define:wage

"a fixed regular payment earned for work or services, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis"

I see no issue with 'wage' by that definition. Some people seem to go into a frenzy in relation to the terminology required to be a 'good contractor'. Similar shock expressions below.
Job?
Employer?
Salary?

In which case you would be wrong. A couple of more clicks finds more definitions that state...

A regular payment, usually on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, made by an employer to an employee, especially for manual or unskilled work.

a particular amount of money that is paid, usually every week, to an employee, especially one who does work that needs physical skills or strength, rather than a job needing a college education:

The Collins page goes even further and adds usage which further clarifies..

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/di...y/english/wage

When used as a noun, pay is a general word which you can use to refer to the money you get from your employer for doing your job. Manual workers are paid wages, or a wage. The plural is more common than the singular, especially when you are talking about the actual cash that someone receives. Every week he handed all his wages in cash to his wife. Wages are usually paid, and quoted, as a weekly sum. ...a starting wage of five dollars an hour. Professional people and office workers receive a salary, which is paid monthly. However, when talking about someone's salary, you usually give the annual figure. I'm paid a salary of £15,000 a year. Your income consists of all the money you receive from all sources, including your pay.

There is nothing wrong with using professional speak and the correct terminology for what you are doing. It removes any confusion and assumption and stops you looking like a noob. In many cases they are wholly wrong, subtly in some cases, but wrong.

Try having a discussion with your accountant and keep mentioning wages.
Stand up in court in an IR35 case and talk about employer and wages.
Resolve contractual issues by blurring the lines between employer.
Shake a clients hand when you get offered a gig and say 'Thanks for employing me, I look forward to my first wage'.

Just silly. Understanding what you do and use the right term isn't hard and it's professional. Your companys services are employed by a client or agent, not you are employed by then. That leads to people mixing up who has actually employed their services. If there is an agent it's them not the client etc.

We see it so often on here that the wrong terminology leads to a lengthy thread trying to get to the bottom of what they mean and it will affect you in the real world. You don't see salesmen or two business doing a deal talking about wages.. it's just silly.