I moved from Regina, Saskatchewan to Amqui, Québec in August 2022, I feel like after that move, I can tackle any move now! These are the steps I’d suggest but start at least three months in advance or it will add more stress!

Step One: Get a beverage, doesn’t matter what kind, whatever you like because you will be sitting on the phone on hold for a while.

Step Two: Make a list of every call you’ll need to make. Mine looked like this:

Things to do before Québec:

• Health insurance

• Oil change

• Medications

• Pack

• Call vet about road trip

• Call landlord

• Glasses

• Wifi

• Call bank

• Water/power/gas

Step Three:  Realise that this is so much work and get super overwhelmed and procrastinate for a week.

Step Four: Break it down into most important and least important. The first thing I chose was to call my landlord (in Québec) to confirm move-in dates, the lease and rent.

Step Five: Next, I figured out water/power/gas. Fortunately, this was much easier in Québec than it is in Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, there is a separate entity for water, gas, and power. It’s quite a pain to connect these up as you often must call each entity separately.  In Québec, it was as simple as signing up online.

Step Six: Next I set up wifi, this was a pain and I actually ended up cancelling later on as I am unable to install fibre optic cables to get functional wifi for cell phones and computers.

Step Seven: The next step for me was to get health insurance. I applied online and then had a long battle with them to remove some restrictions.

Step Eight: Next, I called some banks to see if it was worth it to change banks. It was not. Then I moved to Amqui and got my first pay cheque here and my bank would not accept it because it was in French, so I ended up opening a new bank account with a different bank. That was a pain also.

Step Nine: Because I was bringing my rabbits with me on a 40-hour road trip, I wanted to call my vet to get some advice. I was able to get a hold of my vet and got some advice! The advice was to stop every 2-3 hours to let the bunnies stretch so their tummies can keep moving, as it’s very important for rabbits’ digestive system to continually be running. Pictured below is one of my rabbits, Ginger on one of said breaks outside.

Step Ten: Realise that you’re moving in 2 weeks, and you still have so much to do so you spend a whole day cross-stitching instead of doing what you actually need to do.

Step Eleven: Get new glasses because you broke your old ones doing ABBA karaoke. (This is true, it was my friend’s birthday and the song was “Why did it have to be me?”. My friend literally used scotch tape to hold them together so I could still go out after, Thanks Jo!)

Step Twelve: Make a trip to your pharmacist to make sure you have six months' worth of your antidepressants because you have no idea how to get them dispensed and transferred to Québec.

Step Thirteen: Get an oil change because you’re about to drive 40 hours across the country (also because your father and your best friend have been begging you to get one for about two months)

Step Fourteen: Pack!! I packed the bare minimum and played Tetris in my car with all of my belongings.

Step Fifteen:  Leave the only province you’ve ever lived in for a new adventure with your best friend in the passenger seat (she later returned to Saskatchewan, she hates Québec) and your bunnies on your lap, and somehow drive 4 000 km in three days. On this trip, we were exhausted, delirious, and excited. I could not have asked for anyone better to do this trip with, I will always remember and cherish the 40 long hours in the car with my best friend.

I’m incredibly grateful that I have the privilege to move across Canada to a new province to improve my French, to learn new cultures and perspectives, and to broaden my point of view. I’m sure these next few years will be absolutely magical, and memorable for the rest of my life.

So, there you have it, the fifteen steps to move across the country. If you’re going to attempt this, I have two words for you: good luck! It was a total pain, but in the end - I think it will be worth it.

Main Photo Credit: Unsplash