With the way Canadian law is currently written, I have no choice but to have a real, physical ‘homebase.’ I also need to spend six months in one province or territory in order to meet the eligibility requirements for health care.
I knew from the get go that Quebec was not going to be my homebase, the reasons for which I’ll get into shortly. My new homebase needed to meet the following criteria:
1) low taxes;
2) low automotive registration fees;
3) low insurance rates;
4) easy to get to;
5) have a positive attitude towards itinerant workers and lots of work for them.
Quebec loses on all points but the 4th. Same thing with Ontario. British Columbia meets criteria 4 and 5. Alberta might have been good nine months ago, but the economy is tanking and is now risky. Manitoba was a good option for the first four points, but I wasn’t convinced about 5. Scratch the Maritimes since they can’t keep their own workers and don’t need new ones. Scratch Nunavut for being inaccessible by vehicle (kind of important for me). Scratch the Northwest Territories for point number 4. So, that left me with Saskatchewan and Yukon. Saskatchewan lost on item 5 while Yukon lost on item 4. However, Saskatchewan lost full points for 5 while Yukon lost only half points for 4. Yukon is far, but it’s not hard to get to, and the northern tax benefits would cover my gas each way every year.
So, while it seems that I picked Yukon residency for the novelty, it’s actually the most logical and sensible choice!
I chose Dawson City for my new permanent address for the simple reason that PO boxes are free here and I shouldn’t have issues with not having a ‘physical’ address as there is no such thing in Dawson. I’m not sure yet how I’ll handle mail when I’m not in town, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
I’m not scheduled to work tomorrow, so I’ll go into town and get information on what I need to do to get my Yukon driver’s licence, vehicle registrations, and health card. It’s going to be a long process, but I have a feeling it’ll be less tedious than was my return from Ontario to Quebec. We’ll see. 🙂