City guides in Prince Edward Island
What each municipality itself runs for newcomers, written by the people who run it. Use these to compare places on the same terms rather than on where you happen to know somebody.
Write Prince Edward Island's city guides
Municipal accounts sign in to the city portal to draft, edit and submit both guides. Submissions are scoped to your own city — you cannot publish about anywhere else — and a guide stays a draft until someone here reviews it. The templates are exactly what the portal asks you to fill in.
No account yet? Ask us to set one up for your municipality and we will send an invitation to a named officer.
The two templates
Published here rather than kept inside the portal, so a city can see the whole ask before anybody signs in. The headings are the headings that appear in the finished guide. Each section takes links as well as prose — the links are the part newcomers use most.
About the city
For somebody still comparing places. What this city is actually like to arrive in, on the measures that decide it.
About the city
Where it is, how big, who lives here, and what the place is actually like. Include the figures you publish, with the year each one is from. Resist the brochure: somebody deciding whether to move their family needs to recognise the place when they arrive.
Cost of livingoptional
What it costs to live here compared with the big cities people arrive assuming they must live in. Avoid precise figures that will age — describe the shape, and link the page that holds the numbers.
Homes, and what they costoptional
What is available to rent and to buy, which neighbourhoods newcomers tend to land in, and how tight the market is. Say where to look for current prices rather than printing any.
Work, and the kinds of itoptional
The industries that actually hire here and the large employers, so somebody can tell whether their occupation exists in this city. Do not forecast the market; say what is here.
Schools, from day care to universityoptional
What exists at each stage — licensed child care, elementary and secondary boards including any French or faith-based ones, college and university. Enrolment is provincial, so point at it rather than explaining it.
Getting aroundoptional
Whether you can live here without a car, and what that depends on. Say plainly whether transit is municipal or regional, and be honest about winter and about shift work.
Newcomer services, and reaching themoptional
What settlement support exists, who runs it, what it costs, and how somebody actually gets an appointment. This is the section most cities underwrite and it is the one newcomers most need.
Recreation and facilitiesoptional
Pools, arenas, libraries, parks, trails, community centres and programmes. Say whether fee subsidies exist for low-income households and how to ask — it is rarely printed beside the price.
Starting a business hereoptional
What support exists for a new business — a small business centre, grants, mentoring, incubators — and what registering locally involves on top of the provincial steps.
What this guide does not cover
Name the federal and provincial subjects explicitly and send readers to those guides. Required, because without it a city guide drifts into restating immigration rules it does not administer.
Life in the city
For somebody who has arrived or decided to. Grouped the way a city already groups its own welcome pages.
What the city actually does
Separate the three levels of government in your own words. Readers arrive assuming one of them does everything and then look for a health card at the city. Name what is yours, and what is provincial and federal.
Settlement and community servicesoptional
The funded agencies that sit with newcomers, and who each one is for. Cover the groups whose needs differ: refugees and claimants, international students, temporary and migrant workers, and 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers. Include the library's settlement partnership and the cultural, faith and community organisations, and say which services are free and how somebody gets an appointment.
Housing, food and basic needsoptional
Renting and buying locally, the social housing waiting list, emergency shelter, and what to do about a rental scam. Then food: food banks, meal programmes and who to call when money has run out this week. Tenancy law is provincial, so link it rather than explaining it.
Getting aroundoptional
Buses and trains, fares, passes and how to pay, accessible transit, walking and cycling, and getting out of the region. Say explicitly whether transit is municipal or regional — readers guess wrong and the fare system follows the answer. Add the municipal parts of driving: parking permits, winter parking bans, snow routes.
Health and wellbeingoptional
Applying for coverage, finding a doctor or nurse practitioner, walk-in and community clinics, public health programmes, and anything aimed at newcomers specifically. Then mental health: counselling, crisis lines, and support for the particular strain of adjusting to a new country. Coverage itself is provincial; the clinics and public health are local.
Family, children and youthoptional
Licensed child care and early learning, how waiting lists work locally, the school boards including any French-language or Catholic ones and their newcomer welcome centres, youth programmes, and recreation fee assistance. Say how to ask for a subsidy — it is rarely printed beside the price, and a family that does not know will simply not enrol.
Work, education and learningoptional
Employment services and who they are for, having credentials recognised, rights at work, and job scams. Then language assessment and classes, adult learning and literacy. Finally what a new business gets locally: a small business centre, grants, mentoring, and any municipal licensing on top of the provincial steps.
Getting involved and belongingoptional
Community centres, neighbourhood associations, events, the library, volunteering and civic engagement. Frame volunteering as references and recent local experience as well as community — those are two of the things newcomers most often lack. Include whatever the city does on inclusion, and how to report a hate incident.
Safety, emergencies and legal helpoptional
Emergency and non-emergency numbers, police, fire, paramedics and bylaw, and what to do in a local emergency. Then legal help: community legal services and legal aid, victim services, and how to recognise the scams that target newcomers specifically. Say which of these are free.
What this guide does not cover
Name the federal and provincial subjects explicitly and send readers to those guides. Required, because without it every city guide slowly grows its own copy of the provincial pages.