

Ask HN: What is the best place in Canada to live cheaply and work? - visiblestorm

Similar to the US &#x2F; Europe threads.
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stevenameyer
Full disclosure: I am an upper year UWaterloo Student so my opinion is likely
biased.

If you are looking to work in tech in Canada, Kitchener/Waterloo is the place
to be in my opinion. It has:

1\. A fast growing Startup community that has a lot of support from both the
city and various tech organizations in the region.

2\. An excellent pool of talent with UWaterloo(excellent Engineering/CS
programs with a focus on entrepreneurship), Laurier(Well respected business
program), and Conestoga College (Well respected Graphic Design Program)

3\. Getting more recognition for the companies it has been producing in recent
years with a couple high profile companies taking off (Thalmic Labs,
BufferBox, Kik) and PG saying the region has produced some great companies
([http://www.techvibes.com/blog/paul-graham-y-combinator-
water...](http://www.techvibes.com/blog/paul-graham-y-combinator-
waterloo-2013-01-22)).

The cost of living in the city seems on par with a lot of the medium sized
cities in Canada and as a student I know you can definitely live off of a
pretty small budget. I think the benefits of working in region make it the
place to be and can definitely be done for pretty cheap.

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Corvus
Fredericton, New Brunswick, is a beautiful city with great cultural,
government and academic facilities, and great business and communications
infrastructure. Much cheaper to live in than Toronto or Montreal.

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kohanz
London, Ontario. Good proximity to technology hubs such as K/W and Toronto,
without the high costs of living.

Population of almost 400,000. A University with an excellent business school
(entrepreneurs!). Unemployment is somewhat high currently in London (~10%),
but if you're a skilled developer, you won't be without opportunities.

There is a small, but fast-growing startup community as well, supported by the
city, educational institutions, and a great new co-working space.

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bosch
Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Regina, Halifax, Edmonton, Kelowna would all be places
that are cheaper than the normal ones. Also, remember that the smaller towns
you go to are usually more cheaper. It just depends how much snow you want!

~~~
kohanz
Saskatoon and especially Edmonton, for what they are, are far from cheap. The
amount of resource-based work is attracting workers in droves and driving up
living costs.

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tokenrove
Montreal has a very low cost of living, but taxes are high.

~~~
robbrit
Another +1 for Montreal.

While it is not necessary to find tech work, speaking some French can be very
helpful. Also be prepared for cold ;)

Here are a number of vibrant communities in the city:

\- Montreal Tech Watch:
[http://montrealtechwatch.com/](http://montrealtechwatch.com/)

\- MTL New Tech:
[http://mtlnewtech.tumblr.com/](http://mtlnewtech.tumblr.com/)

\- Notman House: [http://notman.org/en/](http://notman.org/en/)

\- Montreal.rb: [http://www.montrealrb.com/](http://www.montrealrb.com/)

\- Montreal Ruby Hacknight: [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montreal-
ruby-hackni...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montreal-ruby-
hacknight)

\- Montreal Python: [http://montrealpython.org/](http://montrealpython.org/)

\- js-montreal: [http://js-montreal.org/](http://js-montreal.org/)

\- Google Montreal Tech Series:
[http://www.meetup.com/googleMTL/](http://www.meetup.com/googleMTL/)

\- Foulab:
[http://foulab.org/en/wiki/Index_Page](http://foulab.org/en/wiki/Index_Page)

\- Devops MTL: [http://www.devopsmtl.com/](http://www.devopsmtl.com/)

