Money on job advertisement

[The Dieselduck]

As of January 2024, some Canadian provinces, like Ontario and British Columbia, are requiring that salaries be posted for jobs a company advertise.
While the salaries for seafarers, especially Engineering Officers, are usually higher than the local average, they should be taken with some perspective by our many international visitors to this website who may be thinking of relocating to Canada.

I generally post job advertisement that appeal to Marine Engineers, specifically sea going ones, but also shore based roles, generally from Canada. Therefore anyone interested in applying for these roles through the instructions in the ad, or the link to the ad, should be qualified to work in Canada - have Transport Canada issued Certificate of Competency or Certificate of Recognition, at the very least, a work permit.

Some additional ideas to keep in mind when considering Canada as a place to work on ships:

• The salary stated is generally a ball park; probably the lower end of the scale is most realistic.
• The salary is in Canadian dollars, which is about 74% of the value of a US dollar.
• The average income tax deducted at source (from your pay) is about 26%
- https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/tax ... canada.pdf
• Consumption taxes – just about anything you buy – is 12% plus a slew of additional special taxes or user fees
• The average house price in Vancouver for Dec 2023, is $1.24 million, you need at least 5% cash down payment
- https://wowa.ca/vancouver-housing-market
• A two bedroom apartment in Vancouver rents out for about $3000 per month
- https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/vancouver-bc
• The median income for a family in BC is $99.6 k per year
- https://www.welcomebc.ca/Choose-B-C/Why ... -and-Wages
• Transport Canada is not an easy organization to deal with
• Generally, there is very low crewing requirement on Canadian ships, so if you’re onboard, there are very few wipers, oilers, motormen, etc, if any at all. It’s just you.

While big salary numbers might seem enticing at first glance, I would recommend keeping some perspective about getting excited and deciding to move to Canada. While Canada is definitely quite a good place to live compared to many countries, it does seem to be sliding into a governance model that resembles a banana republic.

Transport Canada has been aggressive in issuing Certificate of Recognition, which has attracted much interest from those wishing to come to Canada. Make no mistake, this is a strategy to access cheap labour after years – decades - of neglect by ship owners and managers. With the longest coastline in the world, it would be easy to fill the berths with locals, if the pay and conditions were truly reflective of the challenges Canadian seafarers face.

I highly encourage you to do some research between your situation(s), even between other countries, and how it fits into your goals and aspirations, before committing you and your family to such a big change in life.

[The Dieselduck]

Article in Vancouver's paper, August 2024:

"Vancouver home prices dropped from $1,207,100 to $1,197,700 between June and July 2024, a drop of $9,400. In the same period, the income required to buy a home in Vancouver fell from $231,700 to $226,680, a drop of $5,020. This is based on a mortgage with a 20% down payment, 25-year amortization, $4,000 annual property taxes and $150 monthly heating."

From another paper, same date:

"Statistics Canada says the median family after-tax income in 2022 fell compared with 2021, after adjusted for inflation, with young people being the hardest hit.

The agency says the median family after-tax income of Canadians was $60,800 in 2022, up 2.5 per cent from 2021.

But after adjusting for an annual rate of inflation of 6.8 per cent, the figure was down four per cent from the previous year.

Statistics Canada says lone-parent families in which the parent was under 25 saw the largest decrease, falling 15.1 per cent in constant dollars to $24,690 in 2022.

People that were younger than 25 and not in a census family saw a 12.9 per cent drop to $17,650 in 2022.

Couple families younger than 25 dropped nine per cent to $45,070 in 2022."