"There is no easy money, there are lots of crap jobs with varying pay based on your ability to tolerate crap" - OCP

Introductions

Ignore what you're heard about economic salvation in the west and feeding off the oil booming oil sand. Leaping off a Greyhound bus in Edmonton with a sign that says, "Hire Me" with no job skills or education will land you in a homeless shelter. There are already enough homeless people in Edmonton and they're prone to freezing to death in winter.

That being said, we in the #edmonton channel are pretty sick and tired of everyone from everywhere else demanding answers as to where to live and where to work and where to party so I've decided to add this friendly little segment to the channel website. I call it...

Update: August 28, 2006
Housing Crisis

A word of warning to anyone moving to Edmonton anytime soon. With the economic boom and the flood of outsiders seeking jobs has come a massive housing shortage for renters. School starts in a week and many students fear they'll be homeless on the first day back. Those who are finding places to live are paying through the roof. They say it won't be letting up soon either.

"The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimates the local vacancy rate has declined over the last year from 4.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent, its lowest since the 1990s. The market is expected to tighten even further next year to about one-per-cent vacancy." according to the CMHC. There's 40% fewer listings for aparments and more people looking. -"Finding shelter student's first test", Edmonton Journal, August 26, 2006

Edmonton's apartment vacancy rate has fallen from 4.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent in the past six months, making it tougher to find a place to rent.
Commercial real estate company CB Richard Ellis surveyed over 30,000 apartments and found only about 500 vacancies.
Vice-president Paul Gemmel expects the rental market will only get tighter.
"The general economy is so strong. There's no new rental being built, it's not affordable, you can't build these things and make sense out of them," he said.
"I think we're going to see a real tight market here for the next several years."
After years of stability, rents have taken a 13 per cent jump. The average one-bedroom now rents for about $650 dollars a month.
Calgary's vacancy rate is 1.6 per cent.
-"Edmonton vacancy rate puts squeeze on renters", CBC.ca, Friday, July 28, 2006

Who'd have ever thought Edmonton would ever be worse off than Calgary? In short, do not move to Edmonton if you do not have a place to live. If the rental situation is this bad, think about the situation in the homeless shelters.

Also, some new links that might help

Connect2Edmonton
MovetoEdmonton

How do I get to Edmonton?

Bus

Greyhound is a freaking long ride from the east but you'll get here eventually. You'll want a shower after the ride. Something about the air conditioning on those things make you ill. The smell of the artificially cooled air sticks to you.

The duration of the ride from Quebec City is about 2 and a half days over 4,031 kilometers. I can't find an exact price but I suggest buying your ticket early and checking out the "Go Anywhere Fares".

If nothing else, at least the bus is cheap enough.

Plane

Westjet is probably your best bet for flying from anywhere in Canada. A one-way flight from Montreal will set you back about $400.00. It's fast and they're really nice to you.

Be warned, purchasing a one-way ticket anywhere can draw suspicion from security so get to the airport early and try not to use cash to buy your ticket. One last thing, if you've got a line of "SSSSSSSS" across the bottom of your boarding pass, prepare to be searched a little more thoroughly than the average traveler. Welcome to the 21st century.

Train

Via Rail is even longer than the bus but it's much more comfortable and you'll probably smell a little better in the end. Travel time form Quebec City is about 3 days depending on the schedule and the price tag on the lowest class available is around $600.

Where do I live when I get to Edmonton?

Edmonton's real estate market is booming at the moment and chances are you won't be ready to buy a place if you're so poor that you have to move to Edmonton.

Edmonton Journal Classifieds: There's probably a bigger listing here than anywhere else.
Midwest Property Management: This is a decent management company in Edmonton. If you decide to check out this place, talk to MadCatX in the channel because he wants the referral credit.
Other places to look are:Edmonton4Rent, PropertyDirect.ca, or Canadian Residental Rentals. There's dozens of other sites like this one so just use Google if you have to.

Damage deposits are usually somewhere equal to months rent. Twelve-month leases are usually preferred by landlords. Pets are fairly well accepted in Edmonton but it's easier to get away with a cat than a dog but either way, expect to pay a couple hundred for a pet deposit.

Neighborhoods in Edmonton are difficult to judge exactly. Every part of the city has it's bad areas. I'll probably take some flack for this generalization but basically, the north side has cheaper rent but the crime is higher. The Southside has higher rent but there's less crime. Millwoods is really cheap but it's far from everything and the crime rate is fairly high there too. Downtown is decent if you can tolerate downtown life but the rest is pretty steep downtown too.

Where do I go to get a job?

Again, search through Edmonton Journal Classifieds for jobs. The biggest demand right now is for experienced trades people. The really good paying jobs involve some serious grunt work. The big problem with the oil field jobs is that when the going gets tough, the new guys quit. It's not a pleasant work environment. The hours are long and the weather is extremely harsh. Especially if you've been flipping burgers or waiting tables your whole life back east.

Is Edmonton a good place to party?

IRC people aren't usually the best people to be asking. Normal people are out partying while we're at home chatting. There's bars here of all makes and models. Our now famous Whyte Ave is swamped with drinking establishments. There are bars everywhere, just like any other city.

Drinking age is 18 by the way.

Conclusion

There’s you have a brief guide to ditching your own homeland and moving to Edmonton. If you have any suggestions on things to add, let me (MadCatX) know in the channel.

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