Travel: Flights can be a pain from Saskatoon or Regina, as direct flights are seasonal; at other times, you will most likely stopover in either Denver or Minneapolis. Despite this, you can get good value on all-inclusive packages to Mexico, Bahamas, or South America starting at $500 CAD per person for 7 days, including flights (excludes tax). Weekends are not really feasible for trips like Las Vegas, as these will also see you having a stopover in Minneapolis or Vancouver. But North Dakota and Montana are right next to Saskatchewan and depending on where you end up, you may be able to drive to the US. But Saskatchewan is full of tourist destinations such as lakes etc, so you should only be really interested in the more exotic destinations during the winter.
Weather: The climate in Saskatchewan is not like anything we saw in Australia. Since we have been here, we have experienced numerous snow falls and temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius and highs of mid 30 degrees Celsius. Don’t panic, as experiencing this type of weather we found to part of the adventure and the joy of watching the seasons unfold.
Workload: This will vary depending on where you are and how many doctors there are to cover the workload. While we are currently in a town of 2,000 people with four family physicians, we share the workload of the town's medical clinic and hospital. This means we share the on-call roster (weekends and nights) as one in four, as well as the clinic and weekly local nursing home visits. The clinic is open Monday to Friday, and it's up to you how many people you see through the day. I have found the work quite reasonable compared to being a medical registrar in Australia.
Insurance Salesmen: I am not sure how but people get to know you are new to town. Apparently there were a few stories in the town paper leading up to our arrival. Within two weeks we had a insurance broker trying to sell insurance to us. We recommend reading everything before you sign and remember you will most likely be approached before you have completed the CAPE, so it may be better to hold off until after.
TIPS
Organise access to Skype as this gives you the ability to cheaply talk to us, the health region and your sponsoring doctor. The free video calls is especially good for keeping in touch with family and friends once you are arrive here. (Skype is a cheap ways to call overseas, we used it quite successfully).
We had the misfortune of having tickets through Cairns via Jetstar: unfortunate as luggage weight allowances were more restrictive (only 15 kg of luggage each, compared to 35 kg on other carriers).
If you are landing in winter, a warm jacket is essential. We found it virtually impossible to buy appropriate clothing in Australia for a number of reasons: the seasons are back-to-front, and the good brands use licenced distributers, meaning you cannot import from US or Canada. We got around this by researching what we wanted and purchasing a North Face women's coat and an Oakley men's ski jacket through EBay with nil mishap. We strongly recommend thorough research and checking out the seller's history before making a purchase. If you are still not happy buying through EBay, we will try to help as much as we can. One major benefit from buying overseas is the cost: Australian retailers may charge twice the price, even after currency exchange. We strongly recommend brand names such as The North Face, Oakley, Canada Goose, and Arc'teryx.
If you want thermals, check out Under Armour.
Tim Tams are now available in Canada, but Vegemite remains an essential item in rescue packs sent to the home sick Australian and is fun to introduce to the locals. I have also had brief longings for Iced VoVos, Kingstons, and Fantales, but Oreos and Wagon Wheels have been fun to explore.
Watch your weight - see the above note, plus arrival in winter seems to shock the body into storing fat. We both gained a kilo a week until we noticed and bought some scales. We are now very careful about what we eat (which seems easier in the summer).
Sending things to Canada from Australia can be expensive. We found that FEDEX has the best deal: 15 kg for $250 (in June 2009), but make sure you send it to yourself from yourself to avoid tax on arrival.
We suggest if possible organising travel insurance for as long as possible. Even though you will be covered for medical problems through the province, this takes time and you may need the option of returning home to family in a hurry.
A couple of suggestions to consider is bringing cricket bat, rugby ball, Wallabies jerseys (lots of South African docs who are all rugby-mad or cricket-keen).
Don't buy anything until you look at the online prices in North America. A good example is apple.ca can be substantially cheaper than apple.com.au, as well as our experience with winter gear, etc.
A final note coming from painful experience: wrap up your Bundy Rum with as much protection as possible. We arrived in Saskatoon with our clothes soaked in 1.25 L of the stuff.