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Just thought I'd say what a great place this is and how useful it is to have forums like this.
Anyway, I'm curious to know an "on the ground" perspective of Ottawa. I live in Alberta and it really isn't doing anything for me. I moved here a year ago from the UK and arrived at a bad time. All the oil industry was going up the creek and a lot of the jobs have been disappearing since. I'm looking for work in the Administrative/Business sector and there's little to no jobs with really high competition (Only to be expected, of course) but yet, when I look at the job opportunities for this field in Ottawa and Ontario, there seems to be plenty more jobs and a lower cost of living (so it seems on the surface anyway)
So what I'm trying to get my head around is why there's a mass exodus to Alberta from the East? What is the draw? I can imagine before the recession, maybe but now there really isn't anything. Plus on a cultural level, I really don't fit in. I feel like I've stepped back 50 years with strong separatist views and of course anti all things Eastern Canada.
Ottawa's mostly a government town so it's not prone to boom and bust cycles like Calgary is. As such the highs aren't as high and the lows aren't as low.
At the moment with the Trudeau government there is more optimism in Ottawa than during the Harper years, but people aren't yelling "ya-hoo!" just yet. That would not be Ottawa's style anyway. It's more a "stay the course" town.
People in Ottawa aren't as aggressively ambitious as people in Calgary are, and aren't as career or success-oriented.
The number of things to do within the city and its metro area are roughly the same as in Calgary as the cities are about the same size.
Ottawa has a lot more to see in the geographic vicinity (though nothing like the Rockies in terms of mountains) and you can easily do trips to Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Niagara Falls, New York, Boston, Washington, etc.
As you are from the UK you'll probably find that Ottawa is a bit more "old world" (for Canada anyway) and feels more established than Calgary, which has a very newish shine and vibe.
Both cities have relatively comparably diverse populations with lots of immigrants.
One big difference in Ottawa is the French-speaking population. It's about 15% in Ottawa itself but it's around 35% of Ottawa's metro that is French-speaking when you include Gatineau across the river which is a city of about 300,000 people right across the river in Quebec that operates for all intents and purposes entirely in French.
The fact that Ottawa (downtown in fact) abuts Quebec directly gives it a kind of border or even binational feel even though obviously it's still the same country when you cross the bridges.
Ottawa has the advantage that it is closer to bigger cities. Toronto is about four hours drive away and MTL is about two. Nyc is a bit further away but still not too bad of a drive.
Ottawa has the advantage that it is closer to bigger cities. Toronto is about four hours drive away and MTL is about two. Nyc is a bit further away but still not too bad of a drive.
Was going to say same thing.
Ottawa location has more cities within a few hours drive.
Calgary has the Rocky Mountains which is great,
but Ottawa is not too far from NY State's Adirondack Mountains,
very good hiking and skiing.
My cousins lived in Ottawa and had a cottage just south of Malone, NY.
Ottawa has much more greenery with in the city limits as compared to Calgary, for which one needs to look towards Rockies. More than double the annual rainfall, which brings much needed relief after a couple of hot days, as far as Calgary is concerned, it looks like, the city is settled on sand dunes with very high temperatures during summer season and lack of monsoon has a cascading effect.
Ottawa has much more greenery with in the city limits as compared to Calgary, for which one needs to look towards Rockies. More than double the annual rainfall, which brings much needed relief after a couple of hot days, as far as Calgary is concerned, it looks like, the city is settled on sand dunes with very high temperatures during summer season and lack of monsoon has a cascading effect.
Ottawa has much hotter summers than Calgary and it's more humid as well. This summer in Calgary was really bad, too much clouds and rain and not warm enough for the most part. The winter and spring was really good though. Calgary's weather has higher variation and changes a lot more than Ottawa. There's a saying in Calgary, "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes."
Agree with what everyone else mentions... if you came to Ottawa with a business/admin background, the obvious route of employment would be temp agency to get a foot in the door with some government experience. Then keep applying for government jobs until you land one. Once you get into the government as a "determinate" (short term) employee, your goal is to keep getting renewed, which usually happens anyway. And as a determinate employee, you can then apply for permanent positions in internal government job competitions (job notices). The coveted permanent status is what you'd be looking for. Once you have that, it's basically excellent benefits and good pay, with a moderate cost of living in Ottawa.
Ottawa's still really a government town. Although, there are other strong sectors here too. There are many people who work in health care in Ottawa. There are some regional healthcare facilities in the city, serving eastern Ontario.
Ottawa's the big capital in a largely rural region, so there's a strong connection to rural roots that you'd find here. The Ottawa Valley is traditionally farming country. Lots of farms north of the city, just across the river outside of Gatineau too. The city core is getting denser, though, which is good. IMO. Lots of condo developments went up over the past 15 years. There's also a major development project planned for just west of downtown, to be built over the next 10 years in phases.
There will be a new riverfront arena built for the Ottawa Senators (hockey) in the next 5 years. Plus a lot of new high-rise offices, condos, etc. in that area. Basically, a major expansion of downtown to the riverfront just west of the current downtown core. A lot of ex-industrial land sat empty there for many decades, acres of undeveloped waterfront land sitting vacant. So that's one more thing I guess I could mention about Ottawa... for a long time, the wheels of change turned very slowly around here. But as the city's population has grown, I see that changing more and more.
Ottawa's more multicultural than outsiders might think at first. There's a very strong Francophone segment of the population. We're very close to Quebec (10 minute walk across the bridges). And Montreal's an easy day trip. There are large Italian, Lebanese, Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, Jewish, Vietnamese, Somali, etc. communities. Plus the foreign population that works at the embassies. And we enjoy the advantages of having national cultural institutions like the National Gallery, the National Arts Centre, etc.
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Calgary vs Ottawa
