The skytrain will take you from the YVR arrivals terminal right downtown. Cost is 6 bucks, and you will be at your apartment or hotel in 20-30 minutes.
The city is most the most walkable in the world, with almost no need for a car (unless you really like to go on weekend road trips). Crime is extremely low right now, and the city economy is very solid.
With TED moving to the city next year (and a bunch of other things falling into place), it is a great time to move to Vancouver to find a job or start a business.
Also, the thing about french is not true in the west. No one speaks a lick of french anywhere west of Ontario, and it will never be a job requirement, unless you are applying to work with the federal government.
SkyTrain is the most beautiful rapid transit line I've ever been on.
Best in the world though? Not sure - I'd like to see it compared to Zurich or Hong Kong or Amsterdam in that regard.
If you live out in the burbs, transit is okay, but not better than most European cities.
Downtown Vancouver and false creek were designed with density and walking in mind. Every condo tower must have street level retail, and they make sure to have essential things like good grocery stores every few blocks. Check out the walk score for Yaletown: http://www.walkscore.com/score/davie-st-and-pacific-boulevar...
Niagara falls is still brutally cold and snowy in the winter. The only place you won't freeze your ass off is the west coast of BC. aka Victoria/Vancouver.
> Cost of living is slightly lower than in the US for most parts of Canada.
Unless you are in Vancouver, where it is quite expensive to live. Housing, food, fuel... There are very few places in the US that are as expensive to live as Vancouver.
Housing prices are a joke, literally: http://www.crackshackormansion.com/
> the laid back atmosphere and the different venture capital climate make it a lot harder to get off the ground in Canada
It is harder to get VC funding in Canada than it is south of the border. From what I've seen startup's in the US/Silicon Valley that may get 20million, you can expect ~1million in Canada, and most won't even look at you unless you already have paying customers. I don't really know all the factors that cause this but investors are much more conservative here.
I don't believe there's a French language requirement. It's either English or French, one or the other. From the website:
"You must meet the minimum level of CLB 5 in either English or French for all four language abilities."
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/eli...
I find cost of living in Vancouver (North Shore) quite high when compared, for example, with Portland, OR. Granted, this is one of the more expensive regions in Canada vs a city in a state with no sales tax, but still most of the goods and food in Canada are significantly more expensive than in the US.
I know several people that moved there from Toronto recently and neither of them mentioned expensive housing but I'll take your word for it.
I think there is a large concentration of talented people here who are far more interested in working in high-tech than working for the government.
- remember to sign up for OHIP (or the local equivalent) as soon as you arrive, there is a time limit on how long you can wait before signing up after arriving in Canada. If you don't do this in time you will not be covered.
- Canada has some pretty severe weather in the winter, everywhere except for the area around Niagara falls and Vancouver. The latter is the better spot all year round. Big cities are your only chance to mitigate the worst of this, rural life is brutal.
- Don't make any irreversible moves (giving away stuff, actually moving) until all the paper work is done. I made the mistake of believing a bunch of government officials during my own move to Canada on an entrepreneurship visa and it cost me dearly.
- Elsewhere in this thread someone asks why not go to the US, well, (1) free (and good) healthcare, (2) a bit more laid back business climate. That said, the laid back atmosphere and the different venture capital climate make it a lot harder to get off the ground in Canada. Cost of living is slightly lower than in the US for most parts of Canada.
- Outside of Waterloo, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and maybe Quebec City it's going to be hard to find qualified employees. In Ottawa you'll be bidding against the government.
- No matter where you want to go in Canada you'll have to score reasonably well on the French language test. Even if that's the only time in Canada you'll ever use your French. (imho this is a ridiculous requirement, and that's with 5 years of French under my belt and a ton of exposure, you simply don't need it unless you plan on living in Quebec).
- Paperwork processing in Canada can be terribly slow, it is basically the luck of the draw whether your paperwork will be processed in weeks, months, years or even decades! (no kidding...).
I could go on like this for a while, if you have any specific questions about moving to Canada (but not about this program) feel free to ask.