Canada , if civil war breaks out down here...

Yes but he wasn't an average mechanic, he worked on oil field machinery. They will pay to have it done yesterday.
If we are going to compare we should compare oil field to oil field or similar demographics.
That's all I'm saying.

 

Fort Mac isn't really oilfield though, its more mining (north of town though anyways). Its a whole different world and during boom times it paid better than oilfield. Guys up there were doing an easy 6 figures just driving a haul truck or running a dozer 6 months a year.

 

I thought Ft Mac was just about the middle of the Athabaska tar sands.

 

Its not really oil patch in the traditional sense with drilling rigs and such. Everything to the north of the town is open pit mining.

 

My 85-year-old mother was diagnosed with breast cancer last Thursday. Had surgery this past Tuesday.

I guess the waiting committee and death panel must have been on vacation.

 

No different than the heydays of Ft. Mac. when Timmies was paying a multiple of the same wage for someone doing the equivalent job in Cochrane, ON... local market issues.

 

But everything was so cheap down there. Like way cheaper than here.

 

It is never as simple as it looks on the surface; wages, taxes, services, cost of living, quality of life, education, healthcare, opportunities, freedoms, etc. You'll always be able to find exceptions, but there are valid reasons Canada consistently ranks very high on "best places to live" surveys. Of course those surveys are generalities and not specific to you, so YMMV.

 

80 cents/litre for gas and we were paying 1.30 up here at the time.

 

Fort McMurry is an oilfield town. Have you ever ventured farther north, south or out sideways? It's all drilling....