Day: June 10, 2009

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A Question of Residency

With the way Canadian law is currently written, I have no choice but to have a real, physical ‘homebase.’ I also need to spend six months in one province or territory in order to meet the eligibility requirements for health care.

I knew from the get go that Quebec was not going to be my homebase, the reasons for which I’ll get into shortly. My new homebase needed to meet the following criteria:

1) low taxes;
2) low automotive registration fees;
3) low insurance rates;
4) easy to get to;
5) have a positive attitude towards itinerant workers and lots of work for them.

Quebec loses on all points but the 4th. Same thing with Ontario. British Columbia meets criteria 4 and 5. Alberta might have been good nine months ago, but the economy is tanking and is now risky. Manitoba was a good option for the first four points, but I wasn’t convinced about 5. Scratch the Maritimes since they can’t keep their own workers and don’t need new ones. Scratch Nunavut for being inaccessible by vehicle (kind of important for me). Scratch the Northwest Territories for point number 4. So, that left me with Saskatchewan and Yukon. Saskatchewan lost on item 5 while Yukon lost on item 4. However, Saskatchewan lost full points for 5 while Yukon lost only half points for 4. Yukon is far, but it’s not hard to get to, and the northern tax benefits would cover my gas each way every year.

So, while it seems that I picked Yukon residency for the novelty, it’s actually the most logical and sensible choice!

I chose Dawson City for my new permanent address for the simple reason that PO boxes are free here and I shouldn’t have issues with not having a ‘physical’ address as there is no such thing in Dawson. I’m not sure yet how I’ll handle mail when I’m not in town, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

I’m not scheduled to work tomorrow, so I’ll go into town and get information on what I need to do to get my Yukon driver’s licence, vehicle registrations, and health card. It’s going to be a long process, but I have a feeling it’ll be less tedious than was my return from Ontario to Quebec. We’ll see. 🙂

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The Road Ahead

A lot has happened ‘behind the scenes’ in the last few days and the final piece of the puzzle has clicked into place, so I can now write about it.

A little over a year ago, I approached my boss and asked her if I could take a year’s sabbatical to try out full-time RVing. We both suspected from the start that I would not be returning to my old life, but she let me go with her blessing.

Over the year, I’ve frequently mentioned that I could not see myself going back to Ottawa and my old life. At the same time, I could not envision the future beyond the end of August. Coming to the Yukon has changed that and I can now see clearly five years ahead of me.

So, in the last few days, I’ve been going back and forth with my financial planner regarding my choosing a future of my own making spent on the road.

It’s important to understand that we were talking about my giving up lifetime job security, health benefits, and one of the best pension plans in the country, of taking a gamble that the joys of this life would outweigh being less than financially secure. He feels that I am making my choices with my eyes wide open and we’re going to work together to make sure the dream doesn’t turn to nightmare.

So, I’ve quit my job and am in process of severing my ties to ‘back east’ by starting the process of becoming a Yukoner. I will be spending six months of the year up here for residency requirements for reasons that will be explored in a future post. I need a new home base and Dawson City is it. I already have my Dawson City address and this is going to be as ‘home’ as a nomad can have a home.

I’ll be here in Dawson until the end of August and then, if the money’s good, I’ll head up to Inuvik. If not, then there’s next year! I’ll return to Watson Lake for the late fall and then go to Vancouver Island for the winter. Come spring, I’ll come back to Watson Lake, then Dawson. It’s not going to be as nomadic a life as I’ve lived in the past year, but for the time being I can’t afford for it to be. I will be content in going between set contracts and picking up several times a year. There are also a few different roads which lead to Dawson, so I can pick a different route next year.

Eventually, once the debt accumulated over the past year is paid off, I’ll be able to spend my summers up here working my tail off and then use the winter to explore warmer climes.

So, expect a little less traveling with Miranda over the next year or so as a brand new full-time RVer figures out just how she’s going to do this for years. I do have a winter project in mind that will keep interest piqued. 🙂

The best way I can explain my decision to people is that I had a choice between making a living and making a life. I choose life.