Torontonians have it rough, there’s no denying that. With the average house price in Toronto, Ontario, sitting at almost $1.2 million, it’s next to impossible to buy a house in the big city as a young person.
Hell, if Torontonians could live out of a cardboard box they would. The next best thing is a single bedroom condo, but even that costs as much as $950,000 in some areas.
With housing prices through the roof, Ontarians aren’t able to keep living in Toronto. Some folks are even ready to leave the Centre of the Universe.
One province is taking advantage of this, and it’s ours.
Through its $2.6 million “Alberta Is Calling” campaign, Alberta has put up billboards all over the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). This includes the city’s subways, streetcars, and other transit services.
These billboards promote Alberta’s lower taxes, cheaper homes, shorter commutes, and the Rocky Mountains. So what is Alberta’s end game here?
“We have more jobs than we have qualified people to fill them. In fact, industry leaders tell us there are over 100,000 job openings right now in our province,” Highwood MLA R.J. Sigurdson told CTV News Edmonton.
The province wants to fill this job gap with young and skilled workers from not just Toronto, but Vancouver as well.
To Alberta’s credit, these billboards are pretty convincing. One billboard reads, “what did the Albertan say to the Torontonian? You’re hired.”
But one woman took these ads a little too seriously.
Jackie Thomas, a 33-year-old training manager for Little Caesars from Mississauga, Ontario, had seen billboards for the Alberta Is Calling campaign.
In August, the same month the campaign was launched, Thomas had already started looking for real estate in Edmonton.
Before the month of August could even say its goodbyes, Thomas had purchased a new 1,600 square-foot house in Leduc. Talk about an impulse buy.
Shortly after making the move, Thomas decided to spend a night out on the town. Expecting a busy night life and romance, she was disappointed to find that it was nothing like she had hoped.
According to Thomas, “it was the start of a quiet, disappointing week, and nobody was out and about on the weekend either.”
According to her story in Toronto Life, Thomas was used to spending her evenings at the Cactus Club after work. The thing is, Leduc is a suburb 30 minutes from Edmonton. It doesn’t have a Cactus Club.
At this point, Thomas began to wonder if moving to Alberta was a bad call.
After just three months, she made the move back. In total, Thomas’ adventure cost her $12,000 in moving costs. An extra $550 in rent compared to her last home was the cherry on top.
What’s the moral of the story?
We love an adventure, but do your homework before moving here.
Not everyone is ready for the Rockies life.
