The moment we got the word my husband's division was being transferred from Winnipeg to Ottawa, the real estate worries set in.

Would the compensation package cover the cost of the move, our second job relocation in 18 months?

Can we afford a similar house and neighbourhood? Will there be a change in cost of living that will affect our lifestyle?

As the shortage of talent grows, these are questions more and more Canadians will face, says Stephen Cryne, executive vice-president of the Canadian Employee Relocation Council (CERC).

About 130,000 Canadians move each year for job reasons; of those, about 35,000 involve corporate transfers, which involve compensating employees for relocation.

In 2005, CERC's biannual Employee Relocation Policy Survey pegged the average cost of a move at $40,000 to $60,000. It's since gone up, though Cryne can't say by how much since the numbers haven't yet been crunched on this year's survey.

"Housing is a huge part of increasing costs" of corporate moves, he says, and wildly differing real estate markets contribute to the complexity of satisfactory relocations (in which employees stick around longer than two to three years afterward).

CERC helps its 500 member companies address relocation issues, including developing corporate relocation policies covering real estate, taxation, employee household moves and the effect of transfers on employees and families.

Satisfactory relocations are in the best interests of both the employee and company. Unsatisfied employees tend to move on within a year or so of relocating, long before there is a return on the corporate investment in the move.

Keeping relocated employees (and their families) happy makes good business sense, not just because of the high cost of filling a position if the transfer fails. "The replacement process is the least of the cost," says Cryne. "That's intellectual capital walking out the door - and it often goes to the competition."

The typical relocating employee is male, 36 to 40 with an income of $70,000 to $100,000 and a homeowner. Not surprisingly, most employees who turn down relocations do so for family reasons - spouses' careers, concerns with children, adequate compensation.

The major differences in real estate markets is also a real disincentive when relocation involves moving to a pricier city. "There is only so much corporations can do" to take the sting out of it, says Cryne.

There was a time when employers could guarantee the price of a house, top up mortgages to ensure comparable replacement housing and provide financial aid if an employee was stuck with two mortgages pending sale. But these policies can be pricey in today's uneven real estate markets. As well, such aid is considered a taxable benefit by Revenue Canada (which hasn't updated its relocation parameters since 1985; housing prices everywhere have changed a bit since then, don't you think?).

"Government hasn't even increased the allowance for inflation," says Cryne. "Tax laws are not conducive to helping people to move."

In an attempt to keep a lid on rising relocation costs, some companies are opting for lump-sum payments, which are easier and less costly to administer and offer employees incentives for economizing.

Such packages generally include costs of househunting trips for the whole family, moving expenses (including packing and insurance), travel expenses to the new location and temporary housing for the employee if house possession and job-start dates don't align.

We are relocating under such a package, and to come in under the cap, we expected we'd have some sort of compromise - either we'd have to pay more to replicate our house and neighbourhood, or a longer commute would be involved, or we'd have to downsize.

In the end, we did all three. Our new house is smaller and on a much smaller lot without a view, is in a cookie-cutter bedroom community connected to Ottawa by a multi-lane freeway and cost more than the home we're in now.

Houses we toured in our price range inside Ottawa's greenbelt were substantially smaller. Most needed massive renovations and were located on busy streets or in neighbourhoods with loud traffic noise. A similar house backing on water in Ottawa would cost about $200,000 more.

The package does cover moving expenses and realty fees, which in our case involves a fee for early payout of the mortgage. It doesn't cover the difference over four years in mortgage rates (the new mortgage is 1.1 per cent higher), but on the upside, municipal taxes are lower in Kanata than in Winnipeg.

And there's a cap, so we need to be judicious. For instance, although the package includes cost of packing, we decided we'd rather devote that cash to covering realty fees, which meant a slightly lower mortgage. So while hubby susses out schools, doctors and the nearest take-out to our new home, I'm packing and disassembling furniture.

Financial aid is only part of the equation that adds up to a successful relocation, says Cryne. Considering the "soft" costs can better the odds of successful relocation.

For instance, there's one simple act that would cost not a cent more, yet be a tremendous bonus to the transferee - simply give better notice. A third of the companies in the CERC survey give only three or four weeks notice, and most (more than 80 per cent) give less than two months' notice.

That's not enough time to prepare a house for sale, let alone sell it for the best possible price. Heck, it's not even really enough time for the research needed to buy a house that's the right fit for your family in an unfamiliar city.

And fit is very important. Keeping an employee's family happy increases chances of a successful relocation, so it makes business sense to help a spouse find an appropriate job, help organize schooling for children, put the move in context of career development and even reduce family stress by helping with fiddly details such as finding a new doctor and arranging for drivers' licences and house insurance.

Employees are increasingly aware of how lifestyle changes can affect health and happiness, not to mention job contentment.

For us, the move represents 14 events on a list of 43 major life stressors that can affect health on the American Institute for Preventive Medicine's life events questionnaire. Those events range from the move itself, change in job responsibility, change in work, hours and living conditions, major purchases (house and car), change in financial state and living habits, including social activities.

This combination of stressors carries a moderate-to-strong risk of developing a physical illness over the next year, so it is easier on the company's benefit costs, and the family's happiness, to keep stress at a minimum.

All in all, we're excited about the move - Ottawa is a beautiful city, and like Winnipeg, is a city of diverse and interesting neighbourhoods.

We have friends and family in Ontario, and because the whole operation is moving my husband will have familiar faces at the office.

And while I have no job to go to, Ottawa presents more job opportunities.

But no amount of compensation will make up for the loss of the little lake behind my house, for watching the wildlife out the window over breakfast, for chatting with neighbours using the walkway - and for the blow to my western pride that not every damn thing needs to be in Ontario.

Especially me.

(Sharon Adams can be reached at sharon@businessedge.ca)