Cost of Living in New Brunswick

By maintaining a society that still believes in its people first, New Brunswick proudly offers affordable housing, free primary and secondary education, affordable continuing education, free healthcare, and so much more.

Annual Cost of Living

To give you an idea of how the cost of living in New Brunswick compares to the rest of Canada, we prepared the table below from the 2001 Census from Statistics Canada. The values shown in the table are based on a family of four with a CDN $60,000 annual income.

Annual cost of living includes costs for housing, transportation, taxes, and a basket of goods and services, plus a portion set-aside for investment and savings.

Housing Costs

From two-bedroom modern apartments to executive, 1800 sq. ft, 7-room houses, New Brunswick has a wide range of affordable housing options and locations. In fact, you can buy your dream home for what a starter home costs in other major Canadian locations. Because our housing is so affordable, many New Brunswickers can also afford to own cottages and recreational vehicles.

Housing	Average costs ($CAD) Currency Converter
200m² executive	$192,410
150m² average	$139,000
80m² apartment/rentals	$588/mth
Mortgage	$659/mth

To search for available houses for sale or rent, visit the Multiple Listing Service provided by the Canadian Real Estate Association. You will also find on this site important information on what to consider when buying a home.

Utilities

Utilities	Average costs ($CAD) Currency Converter
Water, fuel and electricity	$180/mth
Telephone basic service	$22/mth
Average telephone bill including long distance charges	$58/mth

Electricity

New Brunswick's electric power grid is designed to ensure an uninterrupted flow of energy even during single fault outages, such as transformer failures. New Brunswickers benefit from electricity rates that are among the lowest in Atlantic Canada and north eastern North America.

Residential Service	Average costs ($CAD) Currency Converter
	Urban	Rural & Seasonal
Service Charge	$16.72	$18.32
First 1200 kilowatt hours	7.90¢/kWh	7.90¢/kWh
Balance kilowatt-hours	6.25¢/kWh	6.25¢/kWh

Please visit NB Power's website at www.nbpower.com for detailed customer service and pricing information.

Natural Gas

The discovery of large deposits of natural gas near Sable Island, the construction of an onshore transmission pipeline through New Brunswick, and the establishment of a comprehensive distribution system in the province will ensure that this safe, clean and competitively-priced energy source will be available to New Brunswick businesses and industry over the long term.

Enbridge Gas New Brunswick is the exclusive natural gas distributor to communities in New Brunswick, providing institutional, commercial, industrial and residential customers with seamless reliability in service and customer relations. New Brunswick is the only Canadian location east of Quebec City capable of supplying natural gas to industrial customers.

Customer service, pricing and availability information can be found at www.amazingenergy.ca.

Telephone

Aliant is Atlantic Canada's largest telecommunications company, offering customers a complete suite of leading edge telecom-centric and e-business products and services. Aliant is the leader in wireline and wireless communications services and delivers advanced telecommunications and information handling services throughout the world.

For more information on phone and Internet services, please visit Aliant's website at www.aliant.ca.

Since deregulation, the market has opened up to allow Rogers, allstream, and Group Telecom, among others, to compete for regional broadband, phone, cellular and wireless service.

Entertainment

Entertainment	Average costs ($CAD) Currency Converter
Television/Cable/Satellite	$40/mth
Unlimited internet access	$25/mth
Wireless telephone service	$35/mth
Weekdays and matinée movie	$7.00
Newspaper	$1.00
Golf green fees	$35.00
Weekend ski vacation	$249.00

Source: www.gnb.ca