IN 2015, MY HUSBAND and I moved from Ottawa to Vancouver, where he'd landed his dream job with the federal government. We loved the weather, the mountains and the ocean, and we could envision raising our future kids on the West Coast. I got a job at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and a year after we moved, our first child was born.
I went on maternity leave for a year, and then I managed to get our son a spot at a home daycare. We paid $1,850 a month-it was expensive, but we made it work thanks to the savings we accumulated in Ottawa, where the cost of living was much cheaper. With my son taken care of, I was able to start working again.
In August of 2019, my husband was transferred to Squamish, a all town north of Vancouver. I was working remotely for the government-and doing some public-relations consulting on the side-so I didn't have to get a new job once we moved. We found a preschool for our then three-year-old son close to our new home, which cost us $1,150 a month. We were lucky: I heard from other preschool parents and through Facebook groups that there were long waitlists and few daycare spots in the area.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von Maclean's.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von Maclean's.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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"I escaped Gaza and sent my family to Egypt. Now, my goal is to reunite with them in Canada."
Bombs destroyed my neighbourhood and killed my loved ones. I hope my family and I can find refuge in Quebec.
TIDAL WAVE
Susan Lapides chronicles her family's summers in a tiny New Brunswick fishing town
THE NORTHERN FRONT
In Ontario's hinterlands, a battle is brewing between First Nations, prospectors and the provincial government over a multi-billion-dollar motherlode of metals. Inside the fight for the Ring of Fire.
THE CULTURE WAR IN THE CLASSROOM
Several provincial governments now mandate parental consent for kids to change pronouns in Schools. Who gets to decide a child's gender?
THE JACKPOT GENERATION
Canada is in the midst of the greatest wealth transfer of all time, as some $1 trillion passes from boomers to their millennial kids. How an inheritance-based economy will transform the country.
My Child-Free Choice
For a long time, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to become a parent. The climate crisis clinched my decision.
The Main Event
Calgary's massive, modern, newly expanded BMO Centre is open for business
Embrace the Four-Day Workweek
Canada is facing a national productivity crisis. One counterintuitive solution? Give workers more time off.
Richard Ireland, mayor of Jasper, is ready to rebuild
IT'S TEMPTING TO LEAN on numbers when conveying the scale of the damage wrought by July's fire in Jasper, Albertathe worst in the national park's 117-year history. Water bombers were grounded in the face of 400-foot-high flames. More than 25,000 visitors and residents were evacuated as hundreds of firefighters flew in to assist. Damages exceeded $700 million. A third of the town's structures were consumed-historical buildings, tourist haunts and family homes. One of them belonged to Richard Ireland.
"The Taliban tried to kill me at 16.Eight years later, I am free in Canada."
I ATTENDED A PRIVATE ENGLISH SCHOOL in the Jaghori District of Ghazni province, Afghanistan.