Hi Chris.

Sorry, I don't have direct answers for you but do have a couple of links you might find interesting / useful:

http://www.canchoice.com/living.html

http://www.canadawise.com/

http://www.escapeartist.com/canada/Canada_Tax_Free.html

http://www.quickcanada.com/

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-e.html

I'm afraid our site's no good to you at the moment as we've not resarched Canada yet, although you may find it useful for other moving overseas matters.

Good luck

Pete

Moving Overseas Guide

 

move to montreal

my family recently moved to montreal after spending 2 years in london, uk. i would like to help you out with several key points as we are americans/canadians citizens as well as raise several other key points for you to look into before deciding to move here.
1) taxes - they are very high here both income and sales. you pay combined 7% canada and 7.5% quebec tax on everything except basic foodstuffs. look up the tax issue in the us on the irs web-site. you must be away from the us continuously for a certain period of time before you can claim the full80k deduction.
2) healthcare - look up the quebec healthcare web-site www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca for specifics. for those eligble you must reside in quebec for 3 months before receiving your healthcard.
3) education - unless you or your spouse is a canadian who was educated as a youth in english your child may be required to attend a french only school. some diplomatic status may also help. there are some very nice private english schools in and around the westmount area but you must meet the language requirements. costs range from 10-16k approx
4) driving - this is a time-consuming and rather difficult process requiring import paperwork here in canada and export paperwork in the us. i have given up on the process and despite wanting to purchase a car in the us where they are at least 35% cheaper i am resorting to lease takeover here in canada. you cannot just drive across and license your vehicle in canada. getting a drivers license can be frustrating and time-consuming. they will take your us license as well. this is an easy place to drive around although pay attention at stop signs as rolling stops are the norm.
5) living - there is only one real english neighbourhood - westmount but it is very expensive- the metro is very functional but is limited in its coverage and frequency so spend time visiting all the neighbourhoods such as outremont, tmr, lasalle, notre-dame de grace, cote st luc, hampstead, cotes de neiges and others to make sure of commuting issues. this a great place to bike around in the summer and x-country ski in the winter. it is a diverse place for sure and there are few language difficulties. knowing some french is helpful but generally not required to live in the city. it is required in most of the out lying towns and other parts of quebec. hope this helps
sincerely
cab