Our guide to getting an Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) card So you’ve arrived in Canada, and are living in Ontario on your IEC working holiday visa. Hopefully you’ve come with some travel insurance that’ll cover you in case of any immediate medical emergencies (you shouldn’t have got handed your visa at the border without the insurance!). But what about those non-emergency medical things, which … Continue reading Accessing health care in Ontario
Here at Brown Bear HQ we were recently honoured to be asked to write a contribution on our experiences for a Canadian working holiday eBook. The eBook in question is written by Gemma from the excellent offtracktravel.ca. Gemma’s website is full of useful tips and inspiration on travelling to Canada’s lesser known parts. Last year, her and partner JR went on a 5 month road trip … Continue reading Canadian working holiday eBook – recognition for Brown Bear!
This post is only for you if you are a) new to Toronto or a visitor and need to know how to get around b) a transport geek c) a procrastinator who will read anything to avoid doing their work So read on if you want to know more about public transport fares, transfers and getting to and from Toronto Pearson airport! Public transport, or transit … Continue reading Our guide to getting around Toronto on the TTC
One of the next things we did after getting our new home was to get ourselves a Canadian driver’s licence. The amount of time you can drive on a UK licence in Canada depends on the province. In Ontario you only have 60 days, but in BC for example it’s 90 days. Fortunately for us the UK has an exchange agreement with Ontario, which as … Continue reading Getting an Ontario Driver’s Licence
Now that the fun of our travelling was over, we were back in Toronto and it was time to find somewhere to live before the ‘fun’ of working started! Rather than having a useful website like Rightmove, that allows you to easily search for properties and view photos, here you have to use Kijiji and Craigslist, which are more popular variants of the Gumtree style … Continue reading Finding accommodation in Toronto
Our first day back in Vancouver was very productive, armed with our new work permits we set out to get ourselves sorted so we could start applying for jobs. Getting a SIN number Similar to a NI number in the UK, the Social Insurance Number (SIN) is essential if you want to work in Canada and is fortunately very easy to get your hands on … Continue reading Getting started as workers in Canada
Boring post alert: probably only of interest to nosey people (looking at you Mr P Slaymaker) and those wanting to go to Canada on a working holiday visa For some reason, as the coach started to approach the Canadian border on our return from Seattle we both got quite nervous. Perhaps it was because this marked the end of our travels and the start of … Continue reading Activating our Canadian Work Permits
Brown Bear Travels 