Albetra, Canada is probably the best place if you're looking at Canada. There are a couple of reasons:
1) If you are citizen, or become one, you can sign up for our provincial health care program, it costs like $40 a month or something, but they cover SRS -- it's about a two-three year process. They've gotten stricter recently after being slack for a while.
2) TS people are all over the province (but mostly in Calgary and Edmonton -- I swear these two cities have become a trans mecca! And a lot of trans people have no issues with jobs, and very few actual issues with discrimination). Although we are considered a "conservative" province (we're way more liberal than the states and what the rest of Canada thinks -- Alberta kinds of gets a bad wrap from other provinces for being different), people are generally friendly here and apathetic, so as long as you're not bothering anyone, no one bothers you. I have several TS people who've moved from other provinces, Quebec, Ontario, BC, etc, and all have said that it's nicer here and we're more friendlier over all, a lower crime rate, people don't get in your face, and it's just a completely different city than the rest of Canada. Other cities are nice, and each have something different to offer, but ours isn't too bad. We're very new into the big-city game, however, so we're also growing and people moving here are now shaping the future of Calgary. Our city is just over a million people big -- so, smaller than Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal.
An example would be that my friend and I (m2f), another friend (f2m), and a group of drag kings, and one drag king (dressed in a pink PVC fairy outfit), went to the Calgary Stampede last summer. It's basically a big cowboy themed festival, but we walked around with no issues. A few people stared at my my x-dressing friend, which he didn't mind, but we weren't bothered at all. We got a lot of positive comments, actually.
Now, Alberta isn't the only option, of course, because some other provinces have similar programs, although in terms of access and wait times, ours is still a little better. Some provinces have gotten rid of the program (Toronto, for example). Quebec covers it through re-reimbursement (I think). So, if you go through their program, you pay for the surgery and then you get reimbursed. Manitoba, I think, covers a percentage (like 80%). BC (well, Vancouver) has a GID clinic and it's supposed to be pretty good; however, funding is shaky from when I last herd. The province has a record of covering, and then not, and then covering again. I believe that they made a new GID clinic to "study the need of TS people and if SRS is necessary." So, basically, a delay. From what I hear, Vancouver has a lot of TS people and is friendly -- I've considered moving there after my SRS, but I'm still deciding on that one.
Calgary has the better weather in the province (Alberta) because of where we are. We get something called Chinooks in the winter which is a warm wind that keeps us warm. Now, the wind isn't always around, so we go form below freezing to above freezing several times during the winter. Our xmas's are usually brown (it was 5C - 41F). This week it's been warm and so far we've only had one cold week, where it actually dipped down to -20C -4F. The rest of Canada, is buried in snow and having storms, storms aren't as common here. Vancouver is usually very wet in the winter, and recently they've been hit with a lot of storms due to global warming (global warming has it's affect here, too, which means more moderate temps).
Alberta is also popular because getting a job here is as easy as walking out your front door. Our economy is booming, our taxes are low, and every single place is looking to hire someone. The down side to the booming economy is housing. Housing has gone up and our cost of living has gone up as a result -- I believe we just passed Vancouver as the most expensive city by 4 or 5%. Edmonton is cheaper than Calgary, but also colder, dirtier, not as modern, etc. But the downside to Calgary is that we're over populated, we can't keep up with City growth, and so we're more expensive. But, it's also a more popular city to live in than Edmonton.
So, lots of well-paying jobs, but also not as easy in your pocket book. There are other cities that are cheaper, but the trade off is better jobs. I have a lot of friends back east who've moved out here to get a good job, because they couldn't find a decent one back east or on the west coast. Basically, I've seen friends who were educated back east, but ended up working stupid low-paying factory jobs, and then move out here and get a high paying office job. Calgary is more popular for office jobs, since we're more of a major business center than Edmonton. But then, again, better jobs and better pay = a higher cost of living, but a better quality of living.
So, that's the low down from my part of town. Sorry that it was a bit long.
--Natalie
Posted on: January 16, 2008, 04:15:53 PM
Quote from: Claire de Lune on January 16, 2008, 03:40:54 PM
Be sure and check out the Clark Institute while you're in Canada.
Clark Institute is evil! I'm glad that Alberta's program and research is better, and has a better reputation compared to what's offered back east. Vancover's Clinic and stuff is also apparently good as well. The Clark is a bad mark on Canada. The Clark was in Toronto. At the time, Ontario government covered SRS, but you had to go through the evil Clark to get it. The Clark was sort-of shut down (the people who ran it still exist and run the new place, I hear it's crap). But now the Toronto government has no plans of brining back SRS coverage, because they have a government that sux. Alberta is still the for-runner for trans-care and trans-health. I think that our system is the best in the world at the moment -- it's not perfect, and they are always trying to improve it, but it's considered to be the easiest to access, best care, and coverage.
Recently, it's been going through some type of improvements. It used to be more slack, and we used to have two GID doctors. But we only have one GID doctor and it's a year wait to see him, and another year wait until SRS. I'll be done the year wait in May, which is also my two year FT mark. The requirements is only one year FT, but it's best to start your FT before you see the GID doc. Hormones are accessible before seeing the GID doc.
Now, there is a fast-tracking program, but it's been wonky recently because someone got through who shouldn't of. Before, people were getting to see the GID doctor quicker, depending on the case, and getting SRS quicker -- as long as it fit the Harry Ben's stuff, so one year FT. The problem is that it might have been too fast for someone, I know one person in pertiuclar, so the province has asked the GID doc to slow down and triple check everything.
Technically, I'm in the fast-track program. But my stuff got delayed, so instead of having SRS in Nov-Dec, they delayed it 'cause of recent developments here, as well as in other programs in other countries (ie, people having surgery and then trying to sue doctors, etc). So, the program and province are being more careful because they don't want to get sued or have the program shut down because of someone who got through who shouldn't of at that time, but should have had other issues worked on so that she could correctly take care of her self, make a good decision, and have a clear head about things.
The person I'm talking about is a drug addict. Got through (it's very easy to lie about what's going on because back checking got pretty slack). she wanted to sue Montreal for the Surgery. She didn't take care of her self post-op, so she got very sick, and actually has gone back to Montreal to fix and recover what ever is left. So, yes, it wasn't a good situation.
So, of course, the province is now slowing the process down for a lot of people in the program by a few extra months because they do not want a repeat. Everyone else I know who went through the program has been successful, and were happy to have SRS. I'm sad that my stuff got pushed back a bit, but it also happened to a bunch of my friends. So, we just make the best of it. We're lucky that the program still exists, that the wait time isn't too long, and it's probably a good thing that they are now being more careful, even at the cost of a few extra months.
--natalie
