Here are some things that I learned the hard way moving to Toronto:
-live as close to work as possible. Unless you want to spend 2-3 hours a day commuting.
-13% HST on most things you buy (8% pst + 5% gst)
-Land transfer tax. If you buy a average house ($450k) prepare to pay $10k+ in land transfer fees, unless you are a first time home buyer in Canada
-LCBO and Beer stores are the only places that sell booze. They close up shop early, and literally have bankers hours. So frustrating.
-if you are bringing your car, it can be a real pain. I shipped mine via train. But you need to do drive clean inspections (emissions), out of province inspection, and probably an insurance inspection. My windshield had a small crack and wouldn't pass OOP inspection. I also got pulled over several times for not having a front plate (when I still had my AB plates). Silly cops. You have 3 months to get ON plates and license.
-banks and insurance companies. I was with RBC and Meloche Monnex. Both have West/Central/East Canada branches. So I had to transfer everything, just another pain in the butt to deal with.
Other than that, Toronto can be an awesome place to live. I never went away for Uni so I jumped on the chance to work in TO for a couple years and live it up. Living/working downtown is sooooo much fun. I go to Buffalo to see hockey games (cheap and easy to get tix), go to the occasional Jays/Raps games, and seem to have acquired a love of soccer, and go to most TFC games.
|