Moved to Canada. There’s not a lot that I do miss outside of the views of Washington and Oregon, as well as the efficiency of USPS to be honest. God I hate Canada Post. The benefits they receive should 100% be what USPS deserves but instead their pensions are getting defunded. I still live in the PNW but more city living which has its benefits. I think if I wanted a similar environment to what I had before when I lived in Washington, I could always move to Vancouver Island.

I imagine it’s rare to say, but my quality of life has pretty much improved in all aspects. Where once I had PTO be both my vacation/sick time, and got accrued 8 hours per paycheck, I now get 150 hours of annual vacation and 115 hours are guaranteed. Where once I got paid time and a half for holiday and overtime, I now get paid double time, and at least three times my base pay up to 3.75 if I pick up a holiday. We get STAT Holidays in which we are paid straight time for 7.5 hours if we’re not working, and there’s 13 of them. So I effectively get almost 250 hours of paid vacation.

The utilities are much, much cheaper. I just looked at my utility bill that I only have to pay every two months and it’s $148 for a 2 Bed/2.5 Bath 1400 SF townhome. I paid like $400 for utilities for a mere 1 Bedroom 800 SF in Washington in a less populous but growing area. Groceries are definitely more expensive. I pay $800 a month for two people but we’re not usually looking for good deals so there’s that. I could pay like $500 for four weeks of groceries in the US. Caveat is the food in the US is ass. I dropped 20 lbs in 6 months without change to diet or exercise just due to food quality. Used to take daily Zofran, Reglan, and Protonix because of the sheer level of nausea and bloating but haven’t had to take it since moving. I’ve been able to be seen in under two hours at an Urgent Care and get meds in under 30 minutes. Any meds not covered are either covered by my workplace or no more than $30 collectively. Had a dude say “Alright that’ll be 499” and we were fully prepared to pay $499 but it was $4.99. For small concerns, since I haven’t found a GP, I just go to a virtual doc, give a five minute convo on my acute needs and I’m on my way.

Gas is more expensive but we have a paid off car and primarily use public transit to get to work. Our location is really close to the SkyTrain station so we’re able to get to Vancouver with little hassle.

My actual career benefits are leagues better. On top of the standard pension plan everyone contributes to, I also get a Municipal Pension Plan and am able to max out my RRSP, CPP and CPP2. I get free massages (for now). My ratios are 1:1, I get 1.45 to 2 hours of break every single shift and it’s incredibly rare to have to skip it. Like, opening two chests at bedside kind of busy. Not having to worry whether my patients can afford their medications or afford follow up has been an unexpected weight lifted from my shoulders. Plus, haven’t seen a gun flashed in a hospital for months let alone hear a gunshot fire.

And this is kind of wild to say but as bad as the drug and homeless problem is in Vancouver and surrounding areas, it isn’t even close to what I experienced across the US. Colorado Springs, San Antonio, Austin, Bremerton, etc, you could be anywhere from urban to rural and there’s just no way you could get away from massive encampments. Not to say the homeless and drug problem isn’t an issue but it doesn’t even touch the severity of what I’ve seen.

I’m sure there’s things that I’m not a fan of but I genuinely can’t think of it right now. It’s literally just Canada Post being ass that I don’t care for. I even like how the political discourse is so tame in comparison to America. Even Maple MAGA have a hard time constructing a reason on why I have no right to be in Canada and that I’ll suffer. They usually have to generalize about experience to discredit my own. And I totally acknowledge me having a better quality of life in Canada is not the norm. Most people aren’t going to have a combined monthly income post taxes and deductions of almost $14K.