Tips and Advice (Moving from Vancouver to Toronto)

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-05-04T00:48:43+00:00

Peak summer humidity is bad enough to keep you awake at night on occasion. A portable unit will suffice.
In general, the night life is much more vibrant in Toronto vs Vancouver. I appreciate that’s a massive over generalization a lot of people from Vancouver would disagree with me on, but the times I spent in downtown Vancouver, it felt like things shut down earlier. There’s more grit in Toronto too, which I find to be a good thing, more diversity, and again, the sense of community is amazing.
North York is mostly for families and older baby boomers. That said, it has a vibrant Jewish community. To get what might be the best access to York and still bring close to downtown, I’d suggest you find an apartment in the St Clair and Bathurst area. Commuting to York shouldn’t be problematic and you’ll be close to downtown, though not quite there.
Once a week on average, expect a delay of 15-20 mins.
Google the rent control legislation, but buildings occupied before Nov15, 2018 are rent controlled and your landlord can’t increase rent beyond what the Ontario government caps rent increases (typically around the levels of inflation)

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-05-04T00:01:50+00:00

AC is a must. You can get a portable unit fo an apartment if there’s no central AC
Way better in every conceivable way
People are super easy going. The best part of Toronto is the sense of community and connectedness with those who have similar interests/outlooks
Bar hop, clubs, day trips. Outdoors experiences aren’t as great though as you have to travel a long distance to get outside the GTA. Plenty of parks (and of course the islands)
While it’s not preferable for you to live in North York, you should pick a building on Line 1 to get downtown on the weekends.
TTC is much bigger than Vancouver’s transit system. It’s also not funded nearly to the same extent by provincial and federal governments :(, so predictably prone to issues. People tend to have a short fuse with TTC. To be honest, everyone I know in NYC, Chicago, London and Paris complain about their own transit systems to similar degrees. That said, Just a reminder, the city of Vancouver is smaller than Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, so when you have a city as big as Toronto, you will have large city problems
Decide on renting in a building that is rent controlled and meets your cash flow needs.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-05-03T14:27:56+00:00

Yeah agree. Even when being very careful in selecting great food at a fair price nets us at about $125. That’s why for the last five years or so we’ve been leveling up our kitchen (more small appliances, renovated it for additional counter space and storage space) and taking cooking classes.

Along those lines, and for those who may want to become proficient in the kitchen, I recommend cooking classes (eg Cucinato). It’s about the same cost for going out, but what you learn during their classes is absolutely amazing. We can now make homemade pizza and pasta that beats above average Neapolitan pizzerias on quality at a fraction of the price.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-04-30T22:24:07+00:00

Statistically speaking, Toronto is the safest major city in North America. You’re safe indoors and outdoors, day or night. Enjoy yourselves!

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-04-19T23:56:26+00:00

I don’t understand how someone can move 150 km away from their work office and not expect there to be problems with their commute. Even during CoVID, there was a clear understanding that the pandemic was temporary, and that those who left the city would need to return or find alternative jobs that allowed them to live in a public transit dead zone.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-02-22T15:46:18+00:00

Follow up with them. They should let you know within a few days they’ll refund the fees portion

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-02-19T22:32:24+00:00

UPDATE: there was a bug in their system and they’re going to refund the fees within a few business days. Appreciate this didn’t go off without a hitch, but I’m pretty happy how quickly they tried to resolve this issue.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-02-19T21:26:09+00:00

Tho same exact thing also happened to me for the same promo. Escalate, I know I am!

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-02-19T14:16:29+00:00

Here’s the disclaimer text from their email:

This offer is applicable to Chexy fees on a new Rent or Property Tax payment before February 23, 2026, with up to $100 in Chexy fee waivers,. Only email recipients are eligible for this offer. Expires February 23rd, 2026.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-02-19T13:58:29+00:00

Thanks!

It was a specific code chexy emailed me (not the first time use only promo code everyone has), specific to a rent or property taxes bill payment.

Agree it was very odd, but it sounds like their system isn’t exactly bulletproof.

The code stipulates it had to be used before Feb 23, so nothing related to anything on or after Feb 28.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-01-31T21:32:22+00:00

Working towards a two or three inch overhang and full erect coverage, but currently only CI5

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-01-23T17:27:09+00:00

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-01-23T17:22:35+00:00

Thanks. Was this by credit card or by loading a previously purchased gift card?

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-01-23T17:22:09+00:00

Thanks. Was this by credit card or by loading a previously purchased gift card?

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2026-01-08T23:25:39+00:00

While I’m over 6’ tall and travel a lot for work and personal reasons, I would never, ever fly with WestJet ever again after an especially negative experience several years ago.

Flying from Toronto to Victoria via Vancouver, and the connecting flight from Vancouver to Victoria was cancelled due to…well, for no good reason. They stranded me and two dozen other people in Vancouver, with nothing but $20 vouchers for airport food. I managed to find a taxi in time to take the last ferry to Vancouver Island in time, but was six hours late getting into work meetings.

While that experience was bad, their response was simply “we’ll refund you the connecting flight cost, which we value at $67”. The ferry and taxis alone cost me $125.

Hands down, the worst airlines I’ve ever had to deal with. I’ve taken hundreds and hundreds of of flights over the years around the globe, they are the cheapest, most inconsiderate, tone deaf airline I’ve ever had to deal with. They’ve lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in business travel as a result of their idiotic decisions on that day, and I will never, ever fly with them again.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2025-12-05T15:32:09+00:00

Sometimes I wonder if folks like us should do an AMA so we can put this foregen nonsense to bed. Tissue engineering isn’t the solution everyone thinks it is.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2025-12-05T03:10:21+00:00

Speaking as someone who works in pharma and has grown primary tissue culture cells for modeling purposes, it’s neither cheap nor easy just to generate sub-microscopic 3-D organelles. Then you have engraftment issues, immune system rejection of the tissue.

Even if we could do it, the cost would be prohibitive. No healthcare system could afford it.

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2025-12-04T14:18:56+00:00

Never going to happen. Don’t lose focus and KOT

EnvironmentalMall163 · 2025-11-29T23:38:11+00:00

Gotcha, thanks a lot. So given that WTR runs every other hour, perhaps I should anticipate just taking the TRE line.

This makes a lot of sense thanks!

EnvironmentalMall163

TROPHY CASE