>When I came to Toronto way back in '78, I got half the house for twice the price and it was (relatively speaking) in Pickering as opposed to Leaside!
>
>On the other hand, things only continued to worsen in Montreal as far as jobs was concerned after that. It stood (stands still, probably) to reason that, in a population with so many people not employed (unemployment rates do not tell whole story because they exclude people needing welfare) housing (including rental) prices have to be lower.
>This also makes for lower prices for other goods and services in general.

I agree with that, the official unemployment rate in the province of Quebec (I don't have the number for Montreal alone) is about 10%. It's not the highest in Canada, but not very far. Ontario as a better unemployment rate.

>BUT. . . are you really ready to work in French and to deal with the government with all French documents? Are you really ready to send your kids to French school or, alternatively, to a private English school? Last I heard, unless *you* or your wife were schooled in a Quebec English school and can get a certificate to confirm so (which could be problematic since many of the English schools have closed), your children must attend a French school if you choose a public school.

I don't want to start (another) war on the subject here, but as the only french speaking territory in America (and proud of our culture), we need to preserve our culture in some way. If I would have to move to Toronto, you would be sure that I will send my kid to an english school so that we can integrate ourself to the communauty.

Personnaly, I don't have any hard feelings about english peoples living here, only the ones who are too stuborn to make a little effort just to say "hello" in french. I hate it when I go to a meeting and there are 10 peoples there with 9 peoples who speak french and 1 english and the meeting as to go in english because all the 9 french peoples are bilingual and the english one is not. And beleive me, there are a lot (too much) of those here.

>Finally, there may be work and there may not be. Yes, I understand that "high-tech" is becoming well entrenched in Montreal, but there has also been a HUGE push to train anyone/everyone in high-tech skills. The market *could* be highly diluted, especially considering the relative paucity of jobs there compared to elsewhere.

I've read somewhere that the demand for skilled professionnal would increase by 20% in the next years, but that universities would produce only 3% new professionnals per year.

>All this from a native and fully bilingual (now hardly so since non-use of French now in its 20th year for me) who would dearly love to return to his *HOME*. As I keep telling my sister... when things have settled down there, I'll be first to arrive.

The things will settle down only when:
a) The Parti Quebecois no longuer exist
b) The Quebec separate from Canada
c) Quebec and the rest of Canada find a way to live togheter

I'm not in your shoes, but I don't think that our situation is as bad as in Kosovo. You are still welcome to your home.

>Good luck but remember - there is far more to life than the price of a roof over your head.

Amen.