Thoughts on living in PG

[todbartell]

was in pg yesterday, my 3 year old son says "smells like fart"

[britman101]

I am middle of the road on this one. Entering in to my fourth year of living in the PG area, and there are things I like about it and things I am not crazy about. First things first, it is next to impossible to get a family doctor in this town. As a newcomer, that means you are forced to go to walk-in clinics for healthcare. And this makes it extremely challenging if someone has a health condition in your family that needs regular visits to a good doctor. Speaking about the hospital it is an aging outdated facility that needs renovation work now, but unfortunately no upgrades in the future for the next five to ten years.
Speaking about the air quality it can be either very good, or very bad. This week it has been bad with the fog holding in the foul odors that make it seem like you are smelling a fart for the better part of the day. So if you have asthma or breathing related problems you may not enjoy your time here.
However, it is not all bad, the traffic is very light for the most part as you can get to any part of the city within 10 to fifteen minutes it seems. And if you are into hunting and fishing there will be plenty of opportunities for that.
However, the winters can be long....upwards of four months or more, so you better have a good vehicle that can handle the cold and snow along with a good set of winter tires. But on the flip side, if you are into snowmobiling and skiing there are many trails and skiing opportunities available both downhill and cross country.
As far as living on an acreage, be honest with yourself as to how handy you are with a hammer and saw. It can be hard to get good repair people especially for home related repairs in PG, so it will fall on your shoulders to do a fair portion of it. And did anyone mention the mosquitoes in the summer time, especially in the country, they can drive you nuts. But this should not come as a surprise as this is "swamp donkey" country.
As I say come into it with your eyes wide open on this one, and hopefully you will be one of the people who comes to enjoy and love the town for what it has to offer. Affordable housing, small town feel with out the big city traffic and hectic pace of life.

[BCHoyt]

Thanks guys for all the great info...

I am definately not a city person, hence the main reason I hate Victoria so much.. The traffic here is beyond stupid, too many hipsters in red/black plaid and beards everywhere.. As for finding a doctor there, thats no different than here... Ours retired due to cancer and there was no one to replace him so we have been without a family doc for the last 3 years.

We arent really into night life, unless its sitting next a fire with some friends and drinks and a BBQ going! so thats a non issue.

We do love to travel so being able to take a quick flight to Van, or even Calgary to head south for warmer weather is convenient.

Though at the same time we are happy to have cold and clear winters over grey and wet. Snowshoeing is definately something we want to try, I know Ill be selling my crotch rocket and getting a quad as it will get more use their than my bike.. Hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and mtn biking are all very important for us too so lots of that there which is perfect!

We have already sold our home in Sooke, so currently just renting a place in Langford as we were house shopping here but now with this shift we are looking at places up there online, place with some property on the north side is our ideal spot I think, it would be nice to be able to shoot our bows on our property but not a deal breaker.

[Boner]

I'm on the north side in city limits. Plus or minus 25 kms to go fishing. I can hunt ungulates even closer than that. Once in a while I snowmobile and quad right from my house. Affordable living close to wilderness, and city amenities.

Great place to live except for when there's a temperature inversion like yesterday and the city gets socked in with smog. But the smell is mostly a bowl problem. It's not nearly as bad the higher up the hart you go.

There are some streets better than others in the hart. Just depends on what kind of house and neighbours you want to have. Newer subdivisions with close driveways are a pain when you are trying to move your snow. I've heard of people arguing when someone puts snow in a neighbours yard because of the amount of snow, and the smaller properties.

Also the streets along the bus routes have the snow removed the quickest. It's something to consider depending on what kind of vehicles you have.

Fuel is cheap here thanks to Costco. The other gas stations in the city stay within 4 cents of what Costco charges.

[two-feet]

You could do worse than pg if looking for a rural life style. The down sides have been mentioned ( pulp smog, zombie apocolypse down town) but those can be avoided if out of "the bowl". Pg seems to have a strong community spirit and offers alot in terms of recreation. Good jumping off point for the entire north half of the province.

[WWBC]

I escaped the LML for the cariboo a couple years ago and havn't looked back.
PG wouldn't be top of my list because it's maybe too much of a big city. However, the benifits are numerous:
- lots of interesting areas relatively close by for all types of outdoor recreation.
- Really easy regular flights out.
- great shopping
- relatively inexpensive resestate
-Good weather
- Very central
- really nice indoor rec. facility's
- full service hospital


Fishing and hunting is good, but the best part is your a few hours drive only from some really cool/ diverse areas. Just hook up the trailer after work and go.

I'd make the more for sure. PG would be a good gateway drug into the better parts of BC.

[BCHoyt]

Yeah... We were both born and raised on the island.. Ive lived a few different places in BC as well as Europe and being on the island we feel so trapped...

[barry1974w]

I've lived in PG on and off for my whole life. I like it here. As said it can get a bit smelly once in a while, but that's mostly in town. We have an eighty acre lot 25 minutes from town, while not on the lake, it's a five minute walk to the public swimming area, our house is 200 metres from the elementary school. On my last trail cam check I got moose, whitetail, mule deer, black bear, and elk(on my property). While I'm not current on real estate I know that there's a small house on the other side of the lake for sale(lakefront) for 300k, and another medium sized place not far from there for 209k. The better shopping is definitely on the west side of town, and it is the most popular area to live at the moment.
There is a longer winter and more snow on the north side, but I'd rather plow the driveway than mow the lawn. In June the bugs are insane, they taper off in July. I can ride my sled or my quad from my house and go for hours and hours. If you have any specific questions, shoot me a PM and I'll do what I can to answer.

[ACB]

Nice place to visit but I would never F en live there!

[barry1974w]

Nice place to visit but I would never F en live there!

Good...... please don't come here to hunt either