Saskatchewan the best / 'easiest' province for eventual PR?

I understand with the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, you can apply under this after 6 months working for a company in Saskatchewan. Obviously with bureaucracy and real life delays it would take longer, but that seems pretty good.

Is Saskatchewan a better bet than Manitoba? Are some provinces quicker than others at issuing LMOs?

If I focus on Saskatchewan, where is the better place to be based, Regina or Saskatoon? Both have large airports and similar populations. Regina is more govt jobs, Saskatoon has more private industry/logistics? I think I’d prefer to work for a large company, less chance of being messed about and better support.

foresttrucker:
I understand with the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, you can apply under this after 6 months working for a company in Saskatchewan. Obviously with bureaucracy and real life delays it would take longer, but that seems pretty good.

Is Saskatchewan a better bet than Manitoba? Are some provinces quicker than others at issuing LMOs?

If I focus on Saskatchewan, where is the better place to be based, Regina or Saskatoon? Both have large airports and similar populations. Regina is more govt jobs, Saskatoon has more private industry/logistics? I think I’d prefer to work for a large company, less chance of being messed about and better support.

Goes without saying that SK is far better than MB :laughing: .
You’re correct in saying after 6 months of employment you can apply for nomination ,something that can be done on the first day of the 7th month , it’ll realistically take you another year to be granted P.R.
Both cities have relatively small airports , although starting this Spring their will be direct flights from Regina to Dublin , the alternative being Regina Calgary LHR , which is bloody expensive.Saskatoon has twice the population btw.
Judging by a recent post from fellow forum member Russjp , Loblaws in Regina appear a good bet ,the money is certainly there whilst also being a local driving job ,by Canadian standards.Alternatively DJ Knoll in White City , nr Regina , have just been named in the top 10 trucking companies to work for in N America , some accolade .
Your choice , horses for courses etc .

mind you will need tae hae passed your English test to get nomination for SINP ,or so i have been informed by folk in SK.
but SK over MB ahh well! :unamused: :unamused: :laughing:

Thanks for the replies.

Re; ‘local driving job’, so a great one would be to working across province lines (to qualify as Long Haul) and be done in 12 hrs or it be a regular couple day journey with a known break.

But my concern with that even if such a job could be found, is the Long Haul nature could be questionned during PR application, it would be safer to get a job involving long trips away.

ok …local job usually you are home every night but not leaving province…ie …hauling aggregate,redi mix…P&D city driver.
I asked the same questions when i stopped running south and started running west only(Canada) and i was told by my company that interprovincial is seen the same as OTR (long distance) ,its more to do with number of days /nights away from hame.ie i ran west on LTL work ,mostly sun—back thursday night /friday morn. and no prob wi PR>.
lol a local job thats done in 12hrs :stuck_out_tongue: …iirc 160km circle from your base (as the crow flies)and if the company has a depot further out even better so as long as the company has the depot locations on the door no logbooks just a pretrip/ book and a timecard kept by employer (ie clock in clock out) as long as you stay in province.
3K miles a week on local work is easy done,also local work is usually done by the hr pay.
city P&D iws about $15–18 ,redi mix $18----22 +OT,quarry haul $16–20.+ot grain (local) $15–18.+ot
rates are MB,what i have seen.
jimmy

Loblaws it is then .

OK here’s some annoying newbie questions :slight_smile:

  1. Loblaws is 4 on 4 off? Honestly that sounds good even if the days are killer, I trunk nights at the moment so I’m used to driving while physically stretched

  2. Is it cage delivery to a loading bay, kind of like Waitrose, or have I got the wrong end of the stick, it’s pulling two trailers at once? Or do you offload a trailer, drop it, hook up and offload the 2nd one(?). Loblaws is a big company, I like the idea of going from company site to company site, all things being equal it’s less faffing about and better mechanical support

  3. From my research, you don’t need the active co-operation of your Canadian employer for your eventual PR application, just written letter from them indicating your employment(?)

  4. What do most guys do for accommodation in Regina, what’s a typical cost, are you a long way from the city centre to keep the cost reasonable?

  5. How useless or practical or bicycles for commuting/living in Regina (maybe naive question).

  6. Reading on trucknet, one guy had a speedy LMO from a company in Alberta, I dunno what the PR process is like there, but is it a mistake to focus on Saskatchewan? It’s all prairie country anyway right, probably similar living experience.

foresttrucker:
OK here’s some annoying newbie questions :slight_smile:

  1. Loblaws is 4 on 4 off? Honestly that sounds good even if the days are killer, I trunk nights at the moment so I’m used to driving while physically stretched

  2. Is it cage delivery to a loading bay, kind of like Waitrose, or have I got the wrong end of the stick, it’s pulling two trailers at once? Or do you offload a trailer, drop it, hook up and offload the 2nd one(?). Loblaws is a big company, I like the idea of going from company site to company site, all things being equal it’s less faffing about and better mechanical support

  3. From my research, you don’t need the active co-operation of your Canadian employer for your eventual PR application, just written letter from them indicating your employment(?)

  4. What do most guys do for accommodation in Regina, what’s a typical cost, are you a long way from the city centre to keep the cost reasonable?

  5. How useless or practical or bicycles for commuting/living in Regina (maybe naive question).

  6. Reading on trucknet, one guy had a speedy LMO from a company in Alberta, I dunno what the PR process is like there, but is it a mistake to focus on Saskatchewan? It’s all prairie country anyway right, probably similar living experience.

1, Don’t think it’s 4x4 , used to be able to pick your shifts to suit but times have changed . Try asking them.

2,No touch freight , they have singles and pikes ,more trailers means more wages .

3, Correct , Loblaws do help with PR but you can easily do it yourself with a copy of your employment contract.

4, Renting a 3 bed house in Regina is between $1500 and $2000 a month ,pricey , cheaper in smaller towns outside if you can find something .

5, Forget this idea.

6, PR process and Citizenship change the boundaries constantly , currently PR is quicker in SK .

If you are serious then call their HR and get direct answers .Looking out of my lounge window now makes me wonder why anyone would want to drive a truck here ,snowing and blowing , fire and rescue squad have been busy on the highway this morning :unamused:

flat to the mat:
2,No touch freight , they have singles and pikes ,more trailers means more wages .

Is it like the UK where some guys just do Class 2 delivery (whether b/c of licence or experience), but transport nudges you to do Class 1. But in this case, you will get a bit more money for doing double trailers.

How does this work in practice, you hand in your keys and wait with a coffee for trailer 1 to be tipped? And they fill trailer 1 with empty cages/pallets, then you get the greenlight to back up with trailer 2.

If you are serious then call their HR and get direct answers .Looking out of my lounge window now makes me wonder why anyone would want to drive a truck here ,snowing and blowing , fire and rescue squad have been busy on the highway this morning :unamused:

Grass greener etc :slight_smile:

Don’t work there so not qualified to answer . Pikes to my knowledge don’t do store deliveries but swap trailers at other depots or truckstops .

flat to the mat:
Don’t work there so not qualified to answer . Pikes to my knowledge don’t do store deliveries but swap trailers at other depots or truckstops and are generally a pain in the arse to other drivers, if they’re not swaying around all over the road, they’re taking over the whole parking lots of the few places available in Western Canada .

FTFY :wink:

:laughing: Isn’t that the fact :laughing: .

foresttrucker:
OK here’s some annoying newbie questions :slight_smile:

  1. Loblaws is 4 on 4 off? Honestly that sounds good even if the days are killer, I trunk nights at the moment so I’m used to driving while physically stretched

  2. Is it cage delivery to a loading bay, kind of like Waitrose, or have I got the wrong end of the stick, it’s pulling two trailers at once? Or do you offload a trailer, drop it, hook up and offload the 2nd one(?). Loblaws is a big company, I like the idea of going from company site to company site, all things being equal it’s less faffing about and better mechanical support

  3. From my research, you don’t need the active co-operation of your Canadian employer for your eventual PR application, just written letter from them indicating your employment(?)

  4. What do most guys do for accommodation in Regina, what’s a typical cost, are you a long way from the city centre to keep the cost reasonable?

  5. How useless or practical or bicycles for commuting/living in Regina (maybe naive question).

  6. Reading on trucknet, one guy had a speedy LMO from a company in Alberta, I dunno what the PR process is like there, but is it a mistake to focus on Saskatchewan? It’s all prairie country anyway right, probably similar living experience.

  1. All rotas look set to change in the near future due to restructuring so wouldn`t like to speculate.

  2. If you do a store delivery then its usually a single, all palletised and you have to watch it being unloaded and remove barcodes from each pallet which you take back to the DC, they do have a pike run to Prince Albert where you split it down and deliver each trailer to 2 seperate locations. The job is now changing so we have to collect backloads in certain locations so this usually involves rebuilding your pike, run to new location, split down and put trailers on doors then repike once loaded and return to DC ( all good fun when its 30 below ).

3,4,5,6 ) As FTTM said.

The job is changing and brits are still leaving but we are all still in the dark as to how the new management style will shape up. For me and my family, we came here to start a new life, we have our nomination and are now at the medicals stage for our PR so if the job does turn to ■■■■(im not saying it will or wont) I`m just gonna grit my teeth and get on with it till we get PR.

There’s a lot of conflicting opinions on Loblaws. For example the job might be indicated as a 12 hour shift which you might do handily when the weather is good and the roads clear, which is a question of luck.

I don’t want to fixate on one company, just have 2 or 3 in mind and try to visit them in person around April.

@russjp, what has your shift been, and obviously I take it, it’s qualified as long haul and given you no issue with a PR application.

Congrats on getting within sight of the finish Russ , the job won’t change that much in your timeline .

The weather , how topical :laughing: Our highway 11 was closed for 150kms last night due to accidents , and although open again now is pretty lethal , as are all roads in the area . When it get’s this bad it becomes your choice to run or park , if you hit the ditch the fault will be yours without any shadow of doubt , you are the captain of the ship etc etc . I imagine the local refinery would have shut down their tankers overnight , and personally I’d have parked it too . The better employees , mine included, would rather pay us a hourly rate to sit than shoulder the costs of recovery ,damage , etc . Sometimes this will mean not getting home after a shift but hey ho welcome to trucking through a Canadian winter , can be challenging at times :laughing: .

flat to the mat:
Congrats on getting within sight of the finish Russ , the job won’t change that much in your timeline .

The weather , how topical :laughing: Our highway 11 was closed for 150kms last night due to accidents , and although open again now is pretty lethal , as are all roads in the area . When it get’s this bad it becomes your choice to run or park , if you hit the ditch the fault will be yours without any shadow of doubt , you are the captain of the ship etc etc . I imagine the local refinery would have shut down their tankers overnight , and personally I’d have parked it too . The better employees , mine included, would rather pay us a hourly rate to sit than shoulder the costs of recovery ,damage , etc . Sometimes this will mean not getting home after a shift but hey ho welcome to trucking through a Canadian winter , can be challenging at times :laughing: .

Cheers bud and yes the weather is a challenge, I was asked to take a single to north Battleford at 11 pm last night and I declined it till this morning. Personal safety has to be paramount and no amount of money is enough to take the chance

Timeline of my PR application in Alberta:

  • early December 2012 send off the AINP paperwork to the Alberta government
    Received the AINP nomination by the end of March 2013 as the requested some additional paperwork which took me some time to get. (Somebody else at my company had it in 3 weeks)

-Didn’t send off my PR application till mid July ( me lazy sob) to the intake center in Sydney, NS and received emails of them mid August that the application had been accepted and to go do the medical exams, which we did early September 2013.

-End of December 2013 received an email asking for the police checks which we were able to send in early February 2014.

-Mid February 2014 we were reminded to pay the landing fees and did so promptly

-Mid March 2014 came the email from Ottawa that PR has been granted and to send in photocopies of our passports and pictures for the PR card which have been send off so in a couple of weeks we’ll have to go do the border thing.

From a bunch at my company that applied around November and December 2012 My application was processed the slowest and the quickest was just under 13 months start to finish.

Anyway happy days now as PR is in the pocket… :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Well done , and relax :laughing: Nice feeling eh ? Now the handcuffs are off what are your plans ?

flat to the mat:
Well done , and relax :laughing: Nice feeling eh ? Now the handcuffs are off what are your plans ?

The handcuffs have been off well over 2 years since I decided to leave the big red team and move to W&S were I’ve been happy as a pig in ■■■■ so I’m staying there.

Driving trucks is the only thing I’ve done for a living and what I came here for to do and I still love to do, so I’ll just “keep on truckin” I guess.

Ohh f**k, I forgot to put the ehh at the end of every sentence as I’m supposed to do now ehh!! Sorry :laughing: :laughing:

I would eventually need a confirmation of employment letter, like this (?)

Should I mention my wages too or is this irrelevant.

[Date]

[Employer name]
[Employer address]

RE: Verification of employment for [employee name]

To whom it may concern:

Please accept this letter as confirmation that [employee name] has been employed with [employee name] since [employee start date]. He was employed full time for 45 hours a week and his duties were […]

If you have any questions or require further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [employer phone number].

Sincerely yours,

/s/

[Employer representative name]
[Employer title]