I presently live in Ontario but am very near the Quebec border. I know many people who live in Quebec but work, shop etc on the Ontario side. I have entertained the idea of buying a small property on the river, Quebec side. What sort of differences would I see living in this province vs. Ont.? I am wondering about Real Estate purchases, insurance (both auto and home), vehicle licensing and most importantly income tax. I have heard income tax is higher. Also, I am unilingual which doesn’t pose a problem in the area I am contemplating but would it be difficult to deal with gov,t or businesses?
being a Quebec resident living at walking distance to Ontario, I’ll try to take this one, however since I’m only 21 I have limited experiance with all the real estate and tax stuff:
Income Tax: I’m pretty sure that income tax is higher in Quebec than in Ontario.
Language: You will get most of your official provincial papers in french and might have to ask and maybe go through some trouble to have them in english instead. Being unilingual might pose problems with official stuff… but french is such a beautiful language, you should learn it…
Real Estate: I don’t know if this is generalised on all the bordering locations but at least in the Ottawa region, the housing on the quebec side is significantly cheaper. I’m not sure if government and bank practices and in any way different from Ontario.
Legal System: The quebec legal system is different than the ontario one, its based on the french legal system; I don’t know if it’s better (or worse)
Education: I don’t know if you have kids but I always hear that the Quebec government isn’t very fond of english schools; I"m pretty sure kids can study in english but I’m not sure the government is as supportive of them as to french schools…
This is all I can think of right now, I"ve been overseas for 4 months and out of touch of the stuff going on there… I guess the best service I’m giving you by posting this is that it will bring back your thread to the top and maybe someone knowledgeable will see it…
You pay provincial tax for both if you live in one and work in another… a main reason I am still in Ottawa and not Gatineau.