Only in Canada

This gems warrants a new segment…

I’m currently contemplating some job offers, a couple in the U.S. and one in Canada. There are a great many factors that are being considered in my decision but sometimes it helps to just look at the numbers.

The job in Canada pays more, but there’s the potential the level of tax here would decimate any pay gains. To discover what the actual difference in take home pay would be between the U.S. jobs vs. Canadian job, I Google for a paycheck calculator.

I enter the Canadian salary and the percentage of tax I would be paying, 35%…the program REJECTS the tax rate. It says “taxes must be under 20%.”

I re-Google, this time looking for a Canadian-specific paycheque calculator, and it turns out I’d still be coming out ahead in my homeland. It helps that the Canadian dollar is at a 30 year high and is expected to hit parity with the U.S. dollar by the end of the year.

God Bless Google.

there’s no going back

When people ask if I’m going home after I finish up school I tell them it’s not a possibility. I grew up in a small town in Northern B.C., and my Mom currently lives in an even smaller town even further north.  Below is an email that was waiting in my Mom’s inbox when she arrived at work this morning, just to demonstrate exactly how remote and rural her situation is.

     Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 11:45 AM
     Subject: Wolf spotted

    On the weekend Security personnel spotted a Wolf on the street by the hospital entrance     at the ambulance station.  Please be aware that there are wolves in the vicinity.

     XXXX – Manager Executive & Administrative Services

Some offices send out notices about changes in cleaning personnel or lock-up procedure, others apparently send out wolf warnings. One of my Mom’s co-workers found a wolf on her front porch recently and responded by pelting potatoes at it. In another town near-by, my mom had a neighbor shoot at a bear out the back window of their house.

It’s been over 10 years since I lived in my hometown, not always in large cities, but I now refer to cities with populations of less than a million as small.  Hearing about wolves and bears wondering the streets puts a few things in perspective.