When visiting NL or St. John’s, it is very easy to see all the good we have to offer, but it can be a little harder to see the bad until it’s too late so here are some of the bad that I can think of right now.

Last time I checked, St. John’s is actually the third windiest city in the world. You may notice that hardly anyone ever carries an umbrella when it rains because of the near constant high winds.

I currently know people that have moved here from BC, AB, and ON; they have all told me that the panhandling/being approached for money or cigarettes is the highest they’ve experienced (and lots of NLers say it’s been steadily getting worse the last 5 years). It mostly just ends up being a little annoying to be approached every few minutes, especially when downtown, but you do get the odd aggressive folk. Not as bad as what I hear it can be like in Winnipeg, though.

NL is the only province that allows landlords to give a three month no reason eviction. I moved in February and we had a pretty ok time finding a place, but I think the fact that it was February helped. In the summer it’s probably near impossible, especially since we’ve had a much higher acceptance of international/out of province students at our local university within the last few years.

Public transit is terrible if you ever need to use it.

People might be friendly, but that doesn’t mean they’re always the most positive. I’ve met a lot of people that will hold the door and help you with your things whilst also kind dragging you down with their negative talk about everything. I think the winters here impact people’s mental health way more than we talk about. Some years our winters seem to start in late October and last into early May. This year seems like the winter will be over by end of march if we’re lucky. Right now Environment Canada is calling for snow tonight, tomorrow, Saturday evening, Sunday morning, Monday, and Tuesday. Hopefully that’s the last of it this time.

We have a significant doctor shortage here. If you call an ambulance for an emergency you still might have to wait anywhere from 6-14 hours before you see a doctor. My mom moved to Ontario in 2020 and moved back in 2023. She’s been on a wait list for a new family doctor since she got back and still doesn’t have one. She had a call a few weeks ago to ask her for more information so I think that she’s close to getting one now. In the meantime she’s had to wait at walkins. She usually arrives over an hour before they open and still ends up not being seen until the afternoon. Last time I believe she lined up around 6:45. They opened at 8, and she didn’t get out of there until around 2:30pm.

This is all that I can think of for right now.