you're all using big words I don't understand :( Leave neopets to the children, meanies!

The actual tax portion of Canada is about 25% ish but there are so many other fees. For example, canadian pension plan, auto insurance, home insurance. When i was in Virginia for example, my parents paid $200 auto. Of course this was 10 years ago but at that same time when we moved to canada, this insurance went up to $2000 in the U.S and that's for someone with no accident records. we know a friend that had an accident and they pay $10,000 a year just for auto! crazy. As for health care, it's no longer free. We are charged a flat rate even for OHIP now. And most things are not even covered by OHIP - only the simple stuff like checkups, for example. Need a doctor's note? You gotta pay. The last time i've been to a doctor was 5 years ago lol but i'm still forced to pay for health. I dont find any benefit in going in for a checkup, for just a cold lol. All they say is chicken soup xD Alot of people just go to the doctor's for simple things (like a cold) or just to chat (as my brother says) which is wasting government's money, which in turn causes higher taxes to fund it. Personally, i think even a checkup should cost like $5 so people dont go in just to chat for free. seriously lol Other than that, Toronto (especially the rexdale area) has quite a number of those who are lacking the words "manners" and "hygiene" from their vocab but that's unrelated to this tax issue :P Just a little annoying part when it comes to elevators and closed areas. the other good part of canada was the frozen tuition fees for postsec. education. That was lifted two years ago or so and now it's been rising ever since. Finally, the dalton sales tax is about to come in effect july 2010 which merges the prov. tax and the GST. Great. Now all services which were only charged the GST will be charged the full tax rate. fun fun. (U.S. Sales tax in VA = 5%, Canada = 13%, previously 15%) Gas prices? Let's not even go there *lol*

Dmitri, I'm not sure where you live in Canada, but it's slightly different from province to province. I don't have to pay anything for a doctors note, and tuition fees aren't rising. I'm not a big politics fan at all so I don't know what's exactly different, but it doesn't seem identical.

Edit: oops, double post.

I'm in toronto Ontario. Anyways just like how people say New York is not the U.S. (because new york is so crap), the same probably goes with the GTA. Here, there are so many cupcakes who pop altitudes like never before. Drive like grand theft auto, etc :P Im sure other provinces are much better at least in terms of average day-to-day life The tuition thing might have been just in Ontario. since when i first got in University, i paid $5500 a year. now I'm paying over $6000. Still cheap compared to the U.S. but then again, less scholarships/free money. My brother's tuition was over 10 grand in the U.S (PA) but he didnt pay a cent because of scholarships, etc But i hear medical school is the best here. But so many people go straight to the U.S after graduating and the canadian gov doesnt like that lol

[quote=temps_bons]Okay, posting to the 2nd theme of this thread -- financing education. I live in the US and completed my Bachelors program here. I was able to get scholarships and loans that I didn't have to pay back until after I graduated when I made enough money to afford the payment. It took 14 years to pay back an 8% loan for $6,000 US. [/quote] What was the interest rate on the loan that you had? [quote=temps_bons] My ex husband is a plastic surgeon who pays over $500 each month for his student loans. When everyone was asking him why he wanted to be a surgeon when it would take him to age 35 to finish his answer was, "I'll be 35 no matter what so why not be a doctor?" Great point!! [/quote] That's true but being a woman in that age is not the same as being a man at that age. Women have to think about starting to have a family and getting kids which can take a while while men do not have these thoughts in their mind. Saying that they do not have menopause... [quote=temps_bons]He joined the air force and they helped pay for his education as well as loans. The military is the same idea as the next program I'll tell you about: In the US we have programs which are paid back though service to rural areas (small towns or the country). Teachers and some doctors / nurses (maybe others) can get their education paid for if they work in these underserved areas of the US. A teacher can go to college and if she works in a rural area, each year she works a percentage of her loan is paid. I think it takes most 5 years of service to pay back their loans. [/quote] That's kind of the same thing here in Canada. If we wanted to specialize on something as a nurse, a university can fund our education while working at a hospital. But this can only happen once you have your RN degree. [quote=temps_bons] Nursing is a great profession for now and in the future with the aging population and the Nurse Practitioner makes more income and is in higher demand because they see patients and can prescribe medications (RNs cannot do this). Areas that can't afford to hire a lot of doctors hire one doctor who supervises 3-5 nurse practitioners. Also another program that takes less time to complete is a Physician's Assistant. I think this is a 2 year program after 4 year degree. I worked in pharmaceutical research which also hires tons of nurses to mange the clinical trials. [/quote] Yeah. I was looking into how I can be a Physician's Assistant and apparently you don't have to go to Medical School for it. So it will only take 5 years to get that license. While Nurse Practitioner requires a Masters Degree. So it would take slightly more time (4 years for the degree + 2-3 years for Masters) to get it. So apparently, both of these professions treat and diagnose illnesses which are the same as being a doctor. So I'm thinking to myself, maybe I should be a doctor than be these other titles. I don't know what do you think? You probably know more than me because your husband is a doctor. Any advice would be dandy. [quote=temps_bons] Where ever you choose to get your credentials make sure you know where you want to work after you graduate because you'll have to take tests to be able to work in a country/state if they recognize your degree. If you get your education somewhere they do not recognize you may have to take additional classes (that are review in many cases) or a whole program of study in addition to taking these tests. A nurse in one state cannot be a nurse in another state in the US. The same is true with teachers believe it or not. [/quote] Yeah. I plan to work here in Canada. But I do plan to educate myself internationally. I want my resume to be impressive that way. Plus, if I'm going to try to get my Masters or even go to Medical School, I need to do lots of volunteer work outside of my home country. That way the Medical School Committee will know that I'm a good candidate for their school. But what did your husband do? I know that to be able to go to medical school, you'll have to meet the "Committee" and they'll ask questions of what you've done for the past 4 years or so. And they will ask situational questions that you need to answer. But is that all? Or am I correct/wrong?

if you think that being stinky is something that can only happen in Canada, you have clearly never ridden the subway in new york on the El in Chicago or been to LA or Birmingham or Detroit (and I spend a lot of time in Detroit, I live close to there) or OH GROSS Toledo (my spouse is from there). Poverty and/or untreated mental health issues happen everywhere - and with those two things sadly sometimes you get people who are a little stinky. I don't currently own a car, so I don't know what the auto insurance rates are at the moment. But when I sold my car in 2003 my insurance was only $117 a month. As for OHIP, I have no idea what the fee for that is - but it is nothing compared to what an american pays for their benefits through work. The reason I don't know what it is (and I believe it's pro-rated based on income) is because I don't pay for it, my employer does. I also know that if you make under a certain amount per year it is completely free. pssst, gas prices are high in the US now as well. I live in a border town so don't try to trick me into thinking that gas in the US is like 10c a gallon - I spend enough time in the US to know different. As for tuition fees - I had considered going to school in Ohio just to kill time while the spouse waits to be allowed to move to Canada. It still costs less to go to school in Toronto than it does in Ohio. Things like land taxes, blah blah blah, vary depending upon where you live. You know as well as I do that anything within an hour of the 416 area code is obscenely expensive. You can't fairly compare property taxes in the GTA to property taxes in freaking VIRGINIA. Compare property taxes in the GTA to property taxes in, say, Chicago and then we'll talk.

My little sister was saying no 30 year old+ people play on Neopets. I'll prove her wrong by showing her this board. :P Dmitri by the way it's not the whole GTA that is like that. You should see Brampton. It's a beautiful place. :D Recently though it's getting alot worse... BC and Toronto are probably the most expensive places to live in throughout Canada. Come check it out: http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=abrar1646&misc

[quote=demirep77]if you think that being stinky is something that can only happen in Canada, you have clearly never ridden the subway in new york on the El in Chicago or been to LA or Birmingham or Detroit (and I spend a lot of time in Detroit, I live close to there) or OH GROSS Toledo (my spouse is from there). Poverty and/or untreated mental health issues happen everywhere - and with those two things sadly sometimes you get people who are a little stinky. I don't currently own a car, so I don't know what the auto insurance rates are at the moment. But when I sold my car in 2003 my insurance was only $117 a month. As for OHIP, I have no idea what the fee for that is - but it is nothing compared to what an american pays for their benefits through work. The reason I don't know what it is (and I believe it's pro-rated based on income) is because I don't pay for it, my employer does. I also know that if you make under a certain amount per year it is completely free. pssst, gas prices are high in the US now as well. I live in a border town so don't try to trick me into thinking that gas in the US is like 10c a gallon - I spend enough time in the US to know different. As for tuition fees - I had considered going to school in Ohio just to kill time while the spouse waits to be allowed to move to Canada. It still costs less to go to school in Toronto than it does in Ohio. Things like land taxes, blah blah blah, vary depending upon where you live. You know as well as I do that anything within an hour of the 416 area code is obscenely expensive. You can't fairly compare property taxes in the GTA to property taxes in freaking VIRGINIA. Compare property taxes in the GTA to property taxes in, say, Chicago and then we'll talk.[/quote] I never said being stinky happens only in canada. I'm just saying it happens in Toronto. There's also a separate insurance premium that you have to pay through work as well. Gas prices in U.S. as of August 1-7 ranged from $2.45 in VA for a gallon to $2.70 in New York. Gas prices in Missisauga, Brampton, and toronto averaged about $4.00 a gallon. As for the 416 area code, anything beyond that 1hr, and then you're looking to hook up internet service to cow manure :P No offense to those that live there but there's not much out there (A)

you -really- haven't traveled much in Ontario, have you? Ottawa is a huge city and that is nowhere near Toronto. Out my way you have London and Windsor, both of which are fairly large, as well as Sarnia, Chatham, etc. Real cities with real internet connections and no cows. East of Toronto you have Oshawa (which is a dirty industrial town that I would never live in, but still - no cow manure there). Thunder Bay - real city. Kingston - real city. Belleville, Sault St Marie, do you really need me to continue with this? you're a nice person, I'm sure. but I've learned today that your world is very tiny if you genuinely believe that everything outside of the GTA is tiny backwoods cowland. I'm from Toronto. Born and raised - and I am talking about Toronto PROPER here. Parkdale ftw. I've probably spent more time on the 501 streetcar than most people have spent on the can. But, you know, I've been places. I've moved around quite a bit and traveled more than that. And I would never be so smug and Torontonian to insinuate that there is no civilization outside of the GTA.