"Job opportunity in Victoria"
yay you, congrats !
As far as schools, the Canadian education system is top-ranked worldwide - verified by the thousands of foreign students who come to Canada just for the academics.
Education in Canada is the jurisdiction of the Provinces so if Victoria it would be the British Columbia Minstry of Education; here's the link should you care to browse:
http://www.gov.bc.ca/bced/ Cost of living is relative. Things tend to be more expensive in Canada [unlike the USA our climate doesn't allow for growing vegtables year round and importing always adds to cost an example]; but Canadians tend to earn more than their US counterparts so ideally that will be offset. Gas is reportedly costly but again in comparison it's cheaper out west than back east.
The Canadian economy seems to have side-stepped the worldwide recession; banking interest rates, inflation rate, unemployment rate all eith have remained steady or decreased over the past several months.
Quality of living; world survey's seem to be the best indicator:
The Economist magazine again has ranked three Canadian cities are among the world's top five most livable cities, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary made The Economist magazine's 2012 list released earlier this week. The survey ranks 140 cities based on a number of factors, including health care, stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/15/most-livable-cities-top-ten-economist.html Canada best G20 country to be a woman; Policies that promote gender equality, safeguards against violence and exploitation and access to healthcare make Canada the best place to be a woman among the world's biggest economies, a global poll of experts showed on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/us-g20-women-idUSBRE85C00420120613 Canada rises to Top Five in world economic freedom ranking
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/18/canada-rises-to-top-five-in-world-economic-freedom-ranking-as-u-s-plummets-to-18th/ Canadians are most proud of universal medicare
The online survey of 2,207 respondents by Leger Marketing found universal health care was almost universally loved, with 94 per cent calling it an important source of collective pride -- including 74 per cent who called it "very important."
More recently, the government has spent more than $100 million over the past four years on jaunty "economic action plan" advertising in concert with a constant refrain from Conservatives about Canada's relative prosperity in a battered global economy.
Rounding out the top with 60 per cent calling it "very important" and nine out of 10 respondents deeming it important was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/poll-canadians-are-most-proud-of-universal-medicare-1.1052929 I think you'll do fine, Victoria is a spectacular very clean city - and for what it's world violent crime definatly more the exception than the rule. If you do experience crime it'll more likely be from you leaving valuables in your car in plain sight and some lowlife taking advantage... just practice basic street smarts is all.
Best of luck :)