Vancouver ranked among worst cities for expats due to general cost of living: report
Vancouver ranked among worst cities for expats due to general cost of living: report
A file photo shows Vancouver's skyline before the sun full sets. (CTV/ Pete Cline)
A new list on the best and worst cities for expats to live and work ranks Vancouver in the bottom 10, far below the sole Canadian competition.
The 2022 InterNations Expat City Ranking list puts the west coast city at 43 out of 50, while Toronto is ranked number 19.
Anastasiia Tolkushova, a Ukrainian expat living in Vancouver, says she’s not surprised by the report’s findings.
“In Toronto, there are more opportunities for expats, more opportunities to realize and express themselves,” the 30-year-old said, adding there are also more job vacancies out east.
In May, Tolkushova and her husband moved to Vancouver from Toronto, but the pair are planning to move back soon.
She says Vancouver’s nature and warmer winter climate drew her and her husband to the city, but it hasn’t made up for the loss of friends and comfort in Toronto.
In their previous Canadian home, they paid $2,000 in rent plus utilities each month for a one-bedroom apartment, whereas now they pay that plus the price of utilities for the same size suite.
“After moving to Vancouver, we realized that beautiful nature is not enough for us to enjoy ourselves here,” said Tolkushova.
In the 75-page-report, Toronto is described as “a great place to work and easy to deal with admin topics,” while Vancouver is “where housing is unaffordable and the local residents are not so friendly.”
Each city’s ranking was determined after a total of 11,970 expats rated up to 56 different aspects of life abroad on a scale from one to seven.
Vancouver places last overall on the personal finance index, and the report shows 69 per cent of expats rate the general cost of living negatively, nearly twice the global average.
“The cost of living is far too high. If you don’t have a very high income, you don’t have much money left after paying your bills,” a French expat is quoted saying in the report.
Toronto, in comparison, ranks 46th in the personal finance index.
On top of a poor performance for financial wellbeing, Vancouver came last when it came to cities where expats had personal support networks.
With the exception of Mexico City in first place, the top 10 destinations where expats are most satisfied with the cost of living are all located in Europe or Asia.
The only category in which Vancouver comes close to breaking into the top 10 is “safety and security,” where the city is ranked number 11.
This is the fifth list of its kind from the expatriate network, which launched the first survey in 2017.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week's devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.
The British Columbia government has introduced legislation to make Sept. 30 a paid statutory holiday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Canadians now believe they need $1.7 million in savings in order to retire, a 20 per cent increase from 2020, according to a new BMO survey. The eye-watering figure is the largest sum since BMO first started surveying Canadians about their retirement expectations 13 years ago.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands announced Tuesday that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 100 refurbished Leopard 1 battle tanks, a pledge that comes as Kyiv anticipates a new Russian offensive around the anniversary of its invasion.
Zoom is cutting about 1,300 jobs, or approximately 15% of its workforce. CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post Tuesday that the company ramped up staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses became increasingly reliant on its service as people worked from home. Yuan said Zoom grew three times in size within 24 months to manage demand.
Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkiye and Syria on Tuesday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug, sometimes with their bare hands, through the remains of buildings flattened by a powerful earthquake. The death toll soared above 6,200 and was still expected to rise.
Another British Columbia university has taken back the honorary degree it bestowed on retired judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond after an investigation raised doubts about her claims of Indigenous heritage.
A mangled bicycle and a smashed windshield point to the severity of the crash that sent a Victoria cyclist to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries on Monday.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The Tsuut'ina Police Service, which serves a community west of Calgary, is expected to share more details about the case against former Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse, CTV News has learned.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Nearly five years after Matthew Staikos was gunned down in Toronto, the family of the tech CEO has renewed a $250,000 reward in the unsolved murder case.
Surveillance video of the moments before a former child actor was run down by a vehicle on the Danforth has been obtained by CTV News Toronto as police search for the driver.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
A Winnipeg family is in mourning after two relatives were killed by an earthquake that caused destruction across southeast Turkiye and neighbouring Syria.
A forensic pathologist offered her expert opinion on how Catlin Goodwill’s three-month-old son died suddenly in October 2017, during testimony on the second day of trial.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
A former medical student who claims he fatally shot a fellow student in self-defence during a drug deal in Halifax denied Tuesday he planned to kill the man and steal the marijuana he was carrying.
London police are searching for three suspects who allegedly broke into a home in the downtown core on Monday and assaulted an occupant with a baseball bat, before stealing cash and drugs.
Multiple robbery, weapons and drug charges have been laid against a man and a woman who police allege robbed a Walmart in Goderich last month, according to Huron County OPP.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
A 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his first-grade teacher constantly cursed at staff and teachers, chased students around and tried to whip them with his belt and once choked another teacher 'until she couldn't breathe,' according to a legal notice filed by an attorney for the wounded teacher.
Region of Waterloo staff are hoping to double the number of automated speed enforcement sites in the region to 32 this year, but councillors want to see even more cameras added at a faster pace.
A file photo shows Vancouver's skyline before the sun full sets. (CTV/ Pete Cline)
