krimynal said:
Well I've never been posted to bagotville ( probably will later down the road ) but we have family that lives in this area , What you need to know is that , bagotville is a fairly small city , there might be public transportation , but its nowhere close to what Montreal offers. Houses are a LOT cheaper tho ! so you might want to check for that too ! its a fairly quieter city also.
But If I had to be posted there , I would probably live on base , just to know the area and get along with all the public transportation / sectors I would want to live in !
Wrong on pretty much all counts...
OP: I was born in Saguenay and I have been posted here for the last 5 years. Saguenay is the 32nd most populous municipaliy in Canada. As a point of reference, Barrie is 34th and Kingston, 40th.
Public transportation is fairly good and consists of only busses. There is a stop right in front of the base and a bus stops every 30 minutes. The public transportation website can be found here: http://ville.saguenay.ca/fr/services-aux-citoyens/transport-sts
Most people live in either La Baie, Chicoutimi, Laterriere or Jonquiere (from East to West, the base is between La Baie and Chicoutimi). The Drive to work is between 10 and 25 minutes from all areas.
A modest 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms house is about 200K which is comparable to what you'd find around the St-Hubert area (my wife is from Longueuil).
Although Quebec City is 2h away, there is everything you need in Saguenay. Decent shopping, outdoors activities, including skiing, lots of good restaurants, great local breweries and great nightlife (in Chicoutimi) and a lot of good looking simgle girls (if you are single. A lot of anglos coming here end up marrying a local).
The area (and Base) is predominately French and you will need to speak French to get around.
Here's MFRC's website: http://www.familyforce.ca/sites/Bagotville/EN/About%20the%20Community/Pages/default.aspx .
If you have any questions, let me know.. If you want, drop me your contact info by PM and I can help you out.
As far as where to live, take the House Hunting Trip and decide for yourself. It'll give you a week in the area and you'll be able to make a better informed decision in the end.