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I shouldn't have done it but there I was, in August 2008, reading in our motorhome bunk (whilst travelling around Europe with husband, daughter and dog), when the urge to 'just check out my blackberry' struck again.
And there it was; 'Announcement'.
It wasn't the first time I had read an email with this title as I'd worked with this global organisation for 13 years - I'd even written some of the announcements myself! But this time the words waved over me with a half sickly/half excited feeling. I knew the score. My CEO had been 'let go' and along with him, an entire department and layer of management. It was definite that this would include me but equally feasible that I wouldn't necessarily lose my job too.
There were 10 days of our vacation left and we spent each one planning for just about every eventuality. The outcome is obvious, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this story, but how the outcome came to equal emigrating to Nova Scotia is a tale to tell.
Back-track to January 2008 and an email we received from our good friends in Ottawa. For family reasons they were moving back to 'her' home in Wolfville and they duly sent pictures of house/town/ etc. As all good techy friends do, we googled their new home and environment and were taken. Of course we have seen lovely places before and Wolfville, though lovely, isn't the loveliest (no offence), but we were taken none the less. Taken with what, we didn't know, but we do now and readers will know if they come here and find out for themselves. If they aren't taken, they'll return (but few do).
But I digress.
The next few months of 2008 were spent planning our retirement in a kind of 'well perhaps we should live part of the year in Nova Scotia'. We knew Canada well and have family in Ontario.
We must have felt quite a strong bond to Nova Scotia as we even mentioned our feelings to our then 11 year old (as she reminded us later).
And so it was that after we returned from Europe to a redundancy (the financial package wasn't a fortune but the sort that meant we could do something), it was Nova Scotia that flew to the top of the list. Practically, I went through the motions of looking at local employment but emotionally, I wasn't engaged. I had the taste of potentially not having to work in London, or perhaps not at all! The UK Government soon put paid to any thoughts of my retiring early (by changing the date that one could take early pension so that I missed the milestone by one month!) and job hunting went to the top of the list again, right next to Nova Scotia.
I should have been excited and I was except that for the first time in my life I also felt worried and concerned. Unusual for me, I normally pile in and worry about the consequences later. But this was a huge step. On the flip side, my typically cautious husband (an early retiree cum boat builder) had emotionally emigrated!
We also had an 11 year old to consider, settled in a fantastic private school with fantastic school fees that demanded a city salary. Added to this, we owned a mortgaged house that whilst having a reasonable amount of equity was about to enter a housing market that was in freefall. But Canada called, Nova Scotia called, I called – Mike Wilson.
It is August 2008, I'm in the middle of negotiating my City departure, our house has been valued (gulp), we have a motorhome (also in a falling market), the UK is plunging into recession, we have our daughter's schooling hanging in the balance and we have 34' part built yacht in our back garden! I feel like my head is going to explode but Mike's calm voice and practical advice keeps me focused.
We speak regularly – me convinced that he must curse my every call but he never failing to come back to me with a clear answer on every problem or issue that I throw his way.
It is September 2008. We've decided that we're going to come in January anyway for six months (on a visitor's visa) and look for work (having established that if we apply without work, the wait would be too long for so many reasons). It might cost us dearly (should we have to return) but we'd have had six months in Canada – a fantastic experience for sure – and we'd have known that we'd tried. To this end, we plan a fact-finding two week holiday (with money we could ill afford, given our circumstances) to Nova Scotia.
In preparation for the trip I start job hunting again, in NS, from my UK computer. OMG – this was brutal. I left no stone unturned (nor did Mike) but NOTHING – ZIPPO. We called upon the services of Willis Brazalot (we wanted no gliches in our paperwork). They were amazing too (worth every penny and not that many pennies either). They (and Mike) were consistent in their advice re emigrating, get a job and you can get here. How to get a job – just ask. For example, one piece of advice was 'if you are in Halifax, just ask to see the CEO and tell him you are looking for a position'. 'You have to be kidding' I thought – having only my experience in the City as a term of reference. But this advice did make me change my approach to job hunting.
I put my applications to recruitment agencies on the back burner and started again. I pulled every name I knew or had ever known out of the hat to see who might have connections in any shape or form in Canada. I also started looking at the professional organisations for my line of work (insurance) plus business groups – UK and Canada. I built a list and started phoning/emailing. I was positive. I'm coming over to Nova Scotia in January to live (which was true – 'twas what we had decided), I'm interested in knowing more about insurance in Nova Scotia, I'll be in Nova Scotia in October – can we meet?
I set up either one or two meetings for every day of our two week trip. We also slotted in a 'house-looking' afternoon with Jerry and Annette Murphy, a tour of a couple of schools in the area we had settled on (via internet research) plus a few hours for looking around shops etc. One of the calls I made was to a lady in the insurance sector. I'd seen her name on an industry web site and it turned out she was looking for a new employee but it wasn't a job that particularly grabbed me or that would pay what I was looking for (hoped to get). Anyway, I said we'd meet up (thinking she would be great to talk to for industry contacts) – little appreciating that she was setting up the meeting as an interview).
We arrived in Nova Scotia in October 2008 for our fact-finding trip and as we flew into Stanfield International, on a beautiful sunny Fall day, all you could see were clear blue lakes and trees in their Fall colours, looking like orange, yellow and red lollipops all over the place! There were tears in more than one set of adult's eyes and it was hard not to think, 'this could be home'.
The next day I met the insurance lady, we had a nice chat and spoke a lot about the job. Actually it sounded pretty good, 15 minutes drive from where we wanted to live, great people, something different, blah blah. Well, if this was going to develop I would probably have to do second and third interviews, personality questionnaires, HR meetings (you know the drill). We chatted for about three hours. It was fun actually.
Of course we had to talk about the nuts and bolts of employing a 'non-resident'. Mike had briefed me well and even offered to brief any potential employers so I explained to the nice lady how it might all work. I knew it word for word (but I'm not recounting it here as I've forgotten it all already – luckily Mike hasn't)!
That night, I got offered the job.
Day 2 – panic
Day 3, 4 and 5 – Jerry Murphy, bless him, takes three of us around house after house after house. He is patient, practical, understanding and not like anything you'll ever experience in the UK if you are buying a house. We choose a house, we meet RBC and the lovely Catherine Fitzsimmons. OMG – another gift from heaven. Banking in Nova Scotia, in our experience, is just as good as any afternoon of retail therapy. NatWest/HSB/Barclays – eat your heart out. You know NOTHING about customer service.
So, I had a reduced salary, we only had a small deposit (as we'd not sold our house, planned to rent our UK house and needed most of my redundancy for relocation expenses) yet RBC lend us the money for a gorgeous house. Were they being irresponsible? No. We had enough of a deposit and enough of a salary to afford the repayments – mainly because gorgeous houses are not expensive here and we were prepared to take a reduced lifestyle (spending money wise) to get here.
We bid farewell to Nova Scotia, our new friends, my new employer and our new home. We return to the UK at the end of October 2008, having promised that I will start my new job, the third week in December. Allowing for travelling and a few farewells, we have just six weeks to either sell up or rent out our house, get rid of a mountain of stuff from our house, tie up our financial and personal affairs, sell a car, sell a motorhome and sell (or get rid of) a 34' part built boat from our back garden that is not only an emotional part of us but has to be craned out of our back garden, with local authority road closure permission (which is another story in itself)!
The stress levels had turned me into a delirious emotional wreck. Without my husband, daughter, dog, The Wilsons, The Murphys (including the lovely Brenda), RBC, the Willis Brazalot team, our siblings and dear friends, I'd be done for.
Did we do it? Of course we did. This is Nova Scotia, where dreams come true. But three things had to happen – hard work, self belief and some absolutely fantastic support.
Did it happen easily? What do you think?
We sold the car on route to the Airport, leaving it at the parents house for conclusion of the sale after our departure from England.
We sold the boat just prior to leaving, but the crane out happened on the day we flew out – also the day that we exchanged contracts on the sale of our house!
We didn't sell the motorhome until after some months in Nova Scotia but by then, who cared.
Did we learn any important lessons? Of course.
Take all the advice you can get from those who know the score – we did and are grateful for that.
Did anything go badly wrong?
We had a bad experience with our shippers. Let's just say that either deliberately or accidently (reader to draw their own conclusion), we were told we needed one 40' container (and that there would be room for 10/20 more crates and a dinghy) and we ended up needing half of a second container!
Everyone blamed everyone else but would you pack a bag of kitchen garbage? Would you 'un-stack' stacking crates and pack them separately and empty? Would you wrap each plastic food box in about 20 sheets of paper?
Time is a healer, hence we are not naming the shipper here, but our advice, don't just get quotes for the price but get quotes for the size of container too. We are not alone in our experience and I try not to think that some teams might be working a scam!
As for the legalities, we entered Nova Scotia with nothing more than a Labour Market Opinion for my job and we applied for a three year work permit on arrival. We were very well prepared by Willis Brazalot for this.
It's a brick ****ing thing to do and those who know us would never have thought that we would do such a thing (we didn't think we could either) but we did and actually, it was fine and very normal and very accepted.
In Feb. 2009 we applied, from here, for Permanent Residence and in July 2009 were called for medicals. That was another panic as a medical emergency had befallen husband but it worked out, he got mended by the amazing medical services here and our papers came through within a year of arriving – December 2009.
Timeline summary:
- Redundancy announcement to 'feet up' in a Nova Scotia home – approx 6 months
- From the start of our exercise to leave the UK for good, to taking flight out of UK – approx 6 weeks!
- From arrival in Nova Scotia on work permit, to being permanent residents – approx. one year
Stress level summary:
- How bad did it get? Worse than one can probably ever imagine.
- Was it worth it? Absolutely.
- What is it like living in Nova Scotia? Better than one can probably ever imagine.
Previous client stories
The Witt's StoryThe Saunders' Story
The Carragher's Story
The Bolton's Story