Kelowna Travel Forum

Hi .
My family and I are considering applying for imigration to Canada, for my application to be successful I have to secure employment first. By trade I am a Painter & Decorator, does anyone know of any contractors or companies or websites, I can contact with a view to finding work in and around the Kelowna area.Is there plenty of work in Kelowna? or is there high unemployment, also is it a good place to consider moving to with 2 teenage children?

Thanks.
Peter.

I think Kelowna is a great place for both kids and adults.
There were large forest fires in Kelowna this summer that destroyed hundreds of houses. I suspect ther would be lots of work for you but, I don't know who to contact.
Why don't you try a Paint store
http://yp2.superpages.ca/listings.phtml?CID=0006B900AFB&AL=&C=paint&T=kelowna&PG=L&STYPE=S&R=N&SRC=411&S=BC&NA=&PM=0098209f&LC=13&PI=1&MC=1&CB=&PP=

Cheers Will do.

Pete if you coppy that whole web address it will show Painters and decorators in Kelowna

Dave,
Thanks will take a look , thanks for your help.

Peter.

Hello,
We don't blame you for falling in love with Kelowna. In fact we moved here in just this past August from Ontario for the same reason.
We're sure exactly what you've read about Kelowna but we can tell you that they are probably are true.
We both have 8+ years of post-secondary education & yet all of I've been doing is volunteer work for the CNIB, the Food Bank & Habitat for Humanity.I must add that I'm only with the CNIB now & will explain my reasons for leaving the other two later, if you're interested.
I have to tell you that, there are literally hundreds of jobs here, anywhere from menial to trades-persons to counseling positions{lots of addicts & halfway house}. The problem is the rate of pay. The pay starts at about $8 hour{non-waitressing positions. Much less for them & very little to no tips} to $18 hour.
The latter is so rare that when it posts, people with Masters degrees apply for it.
With the exception of the developers & real-estate agents that make-up the top %30 of the wealth of the city, no-one else makes a decent living. Even doctors make about $10,000 a year less than their colleagues in Ontario.
There really is very little of the middle-class here{%30}. So that leaves the retirees{almost %50} and the lower-class %40. They make anywhere between $8-$14 an hour.
Allow me to tell you about the housing market. There has been a 50% price increase for the past 4 years. In other wards, if you bought a house here 4 years ago, it has quadrupled by now, with the cheapest house{one that is not a bulldoze-house}starting at $300,000.
So how does anyone afford a house on $20-$30K{Gross} a year you ask?
They either moved here a few to many years ago or are retirees that have built-up substantial wealth.
There must be a church or some sort of a religious building on absolutely every street. Sometimes I think one for ever parishioner. Kelowna's population is 120,000 & growing daily.
They mainly vote conservative.
Restaurants. We have not really found one decent restaurant that we absolutely love & recommend. They generally have poor service{what can you expect for $5an hour} & quality & cost on average 25% more than Ontario.
We are having a house built for us & get this, the builders dictate everything from the color of your siding to your landscaping to your interior wall colors, flooring's & even appliances. You may be paying for it{for the rest of your life}but you definitely are not the boss.
Please do not hesitate to ask us any questions.
Dariush

Hi!
Sorry for the delay in replying to your mail, Kelowna is a beautiful place but I'll have to re-think our options because by the sound of what you are saying the wages are extremely poor in that area. The rate of pay you have mentioned is minimum wage here in the U.K. a kid leaving school at the age of 16, with absolutely no qualifications at all would earn more than the rates of pay you have mentioned.

I have recentley turned down a job offer in Kamloops because the starting rate of pay was between $10 & $20 an hour they would not give me a definite start rate figure so I turned it down, $20 an hour would be fine but $10 an hour is a big no no as far as I'm concerned.

How do people survive in Kelowna on that sort of wage, thats wages of about 20 years ago here in the U.K. incredible.

Cheers.
Peter.