Cost of Living in Winnipeg

I am born and raised in Winnipeg and I have lived here all my life. I am 50 years old. Here are my comments:

Currently gas is hovering around $1.20/L and rents in the downtown area tend to be grouped into two main categories: for around 900-1000 you can get an older character buiding. Sometimes these include parking and heat and or water. You won't get much storage or have air conditioning (unless you get a window unit). for ~ $1200+/mo you can get a nice place with modern appliances, flooring, lighting etc. You can rent many beautiful apartments if you are willing to pay. House prices are also grouped into two main categories: for around 220k you get an older character house centrally located. Many of these are really nicely renovated and you can get a great house if you like older houses (built ~1910 - 1940). Then there are the new-builds which are between 350 and 400k. These are more often in the outer areas of the city and are in the typical planned communities which are not similar to what cities like Calgary have in their planeed communities. In Winnipeg these are nothing more than collections of houses around a school and a few parks. Some have man-lade lakes.

Winnipeg is an immigration destination and as such the city is growing. I have seen in the last 25 years, incredible changes in the population. Not all good, not all bad. Time will tell if all these groups form a larger-knit community like what I remember from my younger days. Right now, not unexpectedly, the various ethic groups largely stick to themselves. If you've heard of the concept of "white-flight", I'd say it's a thing here.

At least one other poster mentioned there are no "no go" zones here in Winnipeg. There are now. The central park area of Winnipeg, right downtown, can be very dangerous. Winnipeg has the largest amount of violent crime in Canada. Largely gang driven it seems.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4347007/manitoba-has-highest-homicide-rate-in-canada-violent-crime-up-in-both-winnipeg-and-manitoba/

This story about a young man and his girlfriend who were vicuously attacked (stabbed over 20 times) in the area I mentioned is troubling. Particularly so is the mayor's lack of concern about it:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4413899/winnipeg-dad-calls-out-mayor-silence-crime/

The larger downtown area, while not a 'no go' zone, is truely embarassiing for a captial city. There is no reason at all to go downtown unless there is some type of event you are interested in. After 6pm everything is closed except for bars and restaurants. Our downtown is very run-down, and not family friendly at all. I avoid it at night when alone. I would advice everyone, male or female to do the same.

Winnipeg has many festivales and events in the summer that are downtown. When these are happening, it's completely fine. Also there are some fine restaurants that are downtown that you can go to but it's kind of an in-and-out thing; There's no 'going for a walk after dinner' at these places. There's nothing really to see if you've seen it a couple times.

The roads in Winnipeg are legendary in terms of disrepair. The city is trying hard to fix them, but with urband sprawl there are more and more roads and costs to repair them go up. It's not a sustainable situation in my opinion - but they are trying.

As others have said, every city has homeless people. Winnipeg has many. Winnipeg is much smaller than Toronto or Vancouver but when you are downtown, you'd swear you were there given the numbers of homeless. Our shelters are full all the time. I have heard they are builing another one downtown and it's urgently needed.

We have a program here called Winnipeg Harvest and it's designed to fill the gap when people lose their livelyhoods until they get back on their feet. 10+ years ago it fed 5k people per month. Today the demand is over 50k people per month.

In terms of the good:

The Winter's here are not as bad as everyone says. Like others have said, people under-dress. Summers are hot and we get lots of sun all year round. We have many lakes and you can be at the beach, door-to-door, in an hour. Less if you know where to go. Manitoba has great outdoor trails and scenery if you like the outdoors. Traffic in spite of our terrible roads, is nothing like other cities. You can get anywhere in an hour during rush hour and when it's not rush hour, 30m easily. Buses are aweful and dangerous now though.

Winnipegers like their hockey, curling and football. It gives people something to do when there's nothing to do.

I would not agree that people are unfriendly here. People are cliquey. It is hard to move between social groups and hard to meet new people here. Places like meetup (an online app) look like there are many things going on but there isn't really.

We are getting more and more bike lanes during all the contructions, which is great. The road conditions do many biking hard in many areas and people drive rudely and poorly here. But, there are many parks (Assinaboine, St Vital, Birds Hill, Bunn's Creek to name just a few).

We have a lot of greenspace here which is nice.

I think of Winnipeg like a large town that wants to be a city.

The smaller towns just outside the city, and the outskirts of the city are where Winnipeg really shines in my opinion.

I was born and grew up in Winnipeg and now reside in Ontario. In my my employment as well as vacations, I travelled quite extensively. I moved away for about 15 years and then transferred back to Winnipeg. Shortly after moving back, I was walking across a parking lot to get to my own car when a perfect stranger to my right said "Hi" and I replied back to him with the same greeting. It was only then that I realized what I had missed while being away. The "Friendly Manitoba" is more applicable than I had thought. Winnipeg will always be in my heart. It was a great place to grow up. Also when the city is in crisis like the major snow storm we had in the mid 60's or the flood in the 80's, everyone pitched in to help one another. During the snow storm, people were allowed to run their snow machines in the city to get medications to the needy. Eatons remained open 24/7 to those who couldn't make it home. During the flood neighbours helped one another filling and placing sand bags. Its a great place to live.

Love Canada coast to coast but Winnipeg and Manitoba is as great a place as you will find to live. So many attractions in the city and province, cheap to live, great people, thousands of lakes near by and easy to get around. Amazing arts, theatre, professional sports and so many incredible festivals that will always keep you busy. Summers are fantastic but some enjoy complaining about the colder winters but you have to realize that some people are born complainers. My suggestion is to get out and do things and you'll find how great a place it is.

looked up the top four private schools in the city:

Balmoral (girls, non-denominational) - average $12,000/yr
St Mary's (girls, Roman Catholic) - $7165/yr
St John's Ravenscourt (co-ed, non-denominational) average $average 17,000/yr)
St Paul's (boys, Roman Catholic) - $8,300/yr

St Mary's and St Pauls are high schools only.
Balmoral and St John's Ravenscourt are K-12 and are also both day and boarding schools. The listed prices are for day students. Boarding is extra.

I am from BC, I am being recruited by a large company in the exchange district. I haven't made a decision yet as to whether or not I will move. I do want to make the following points after reading some of the previous posts:

There are tons of people on welfare in bc as well and its the people that have to get up and go to work everyday that pay for them to sit on their butts. This won't change in our country.

the western provinces are overpopulated and jobs are extremely scarce. If you educate yourself and believe that you will find a good paying job in bc you are sadly mistaken, since they are few and far between. I myself am a red seal certified hairstylist, and certified adult educator. My dream was to work in industry and then shift to instructing at the post secondary level. I can say without a doubt I will not secure a full time job anytime in the next 5-10 years at an accredited public institution. I would have to start as an auxiliary if I were lucky enough to get that and would have to work doing something else in the meantime. I think that you need to look at where the work is and when an opportunity presents itself you move on it!

The climate here is great for the most part, aside from the 7 months of rain and if you struggle with depression, the months of endless rain can really put some in a funk, so for me having it be cold but a beautiful sunny day sounds awesome .

Every Canadian city deals with homelessness, and it is just something that we have all become accustomed to and desensitized to, it is part of society and always will.

If you were looking at trying to rent an apartment of the same value in Vancouver rather than winnipeg, you are looking at a minimum of 2000$/month and upward. We are talking small, noisy, and a huge amount of crime, homelessness, drug related crimes and disputes.

The grass always seems greener on the other side, but after reading some of the posts, lots of people are moving west, hence the job shortages, and we also have a government that loves to allow as many immigrants as possible to come in and take these jobs away from resident canadians, and will work cheaper. This is our lives folks.

From what I can see Winnipeg seems like the unpretentious sister of Vancouver or Toronto, it sounds like the people are friendlier, the cost of living is cheaper, and is more affordable as a city than any of the others I have seen recently. So for those looking to get a head, perhaps this is the ticket?

Hi everyone, me , my husband and kids are willing to move to manitoba from india through PR program...please let us know the minimum cost of living per month. job availability for unskilled, housing rent and schooling for children...PLEASE HELP !!

I came to Winnipeg 30 years ago and for the first few years I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay here. After all with no education and no job prospect it wasn't too promeasing. Yes the weather is harsh and can drive you crazy but the people here are different. Winnipers are friendly and they welcome you as you are one of them.I have learn to enjoy the city with its all shortcomings.it is my home and I love it. After few years of hard work and going back to school I found good job and doing really great. I compar myself with some of my friends that came to Canada the same time. They endup in other city,some have done very well and some haven't been so lucky. I guess you have to ask yourself this question that what is it that make you happy and where you can find it.well if it is not Winnipeg so you have to go and look for it some where that might bring the sun shine to you life. We are very happy here and love to call ourselves Winnipegers. Thanks

We moved out of Manitoba last year; these are SOME of the reasons: -45 temps in winter, unbearable hot & humid summers, mosquitoes so bad we could not go out of the house, taxes highest of all provinces, high crime, too many people on welfare (which we were paying for). We couldn't wait to get out and we would never move back!

Moved here almost a year ago. The city is crumbling. The water is not clean. I have not purchased a house as I don't know if I want to invest. Property taxes are set to greatly increase, but they don't seem to know how to properly delegate the $. Constant reports or raw sewage flowing into water source. Lights turn red and green at same time. Road repair doesn't make it through one season (done in summer, crumbling by fall). They blame it on winter, but it wasn't winter before road work needed to be done again. This has destroyed my once new car. City just seems very dirty compared to other provinces. No garbage cans at parks. Poorly designed city for flow of traffic. I see great potential for this place, the weather is fantastic. But clean water, garbage collection, snow removal, road repair, ect is greatly lacking. The city is crumbling and the people that are from here don't seem to know any better. They think it is great and have an endless list of excuses. It is a waste of time and money not to grow and learn from looking at other successful cities. I don't know if I will stay.

Right now , unemployment in Winnipeg is pretty low,...96% of workforce is employed. Unskilled ,low skilled employment is ALL minimum wage..11.50 / hour (except in construction),any employment is very hard to find. It is an employers market here.
Cost of living is far less than Toronto , Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria...housing costs way lower, here.
Significant doctor shortage.
In summer , spring and fall , this is a great city to live in , lots of parks and green space, fabulous weather. surprisingly humid . Winnipeg is the second sunniest place in Canada. Winter time ,....normally dangerously cold with average daytime highs of -15 C in winter (November, December, January, February ). On a bad day wind chills can hit -40 C. This winter is very mild, though.
More restaurants per capita than any other city in Canada.
Multi -ethnic populous . Don't like a variety of religions ,or skin colours ,...don't move here ,...you will not like it.

I grew up in winnipeg, been loving in vancouver. I find it funny how some people on this thread are saying winnipeg has horrible traffic ? Lol . Winnipeg is a laid back easy city to love in plain and simple. The weather is horrible but the cost of living is peanuts. I guess it's like the old saying "you get what you pay for"

St. John's Newfoundland is no different than the rest of Canada when it comes to high cost burden to single individuals. I made less than net 20'000 this tax year and I had to rely on foodbanks and the income support system Wouldn't help me. This year I plan to get on welfare and then work and not Tell them. willing to take the chance this year to see if I get caught. It just to hard financially for singles so I guess We will do what we each have to do in order to get by!