Our Services
CONCRETE DELIVERABLES · CONFIRMED TIMELINES · BINDING PRICES
Every service below includes a binding quote — the number we quote is the number on your invoice. First, we survey your space (15 minutes, video or in-person). Then, we calculate weight, distance, and accessorials. Finally, you get a locked price within 48 hours. No exceptions, no surprise fees, no reweigh adjustments. Here's exactly what you get — the same spec sheets our 47-person team at Canadian Life uses internally, made public because you deserve the same information we have.
Need a quote? Book a Video Survey →[ Residential & Long-Distance Moving ]
You'll have a binding quote within 48 hours, a confirmed 2-day delivery window for long-distance moves, and $2M in cargo liability coverage protecting every item on the truck. Our 98.3% on-time delivery rate means you can book your cleaners, schedule your utility hookup, and tell your employer your start date with confidence — not a 14-day guess.
- Pre-move video or in-home survey (15 minutes) — the same walkthrough we describe in our Complete Moving Day Checklist
- Binding written quote — the invoice matches the quote, period. If we underestimated, we absorb the difference. Read why we refuse non-binding estimates
- Crew of 2–4 movers (scaled to home size), led by trained crew leads like Tomás Pereira, who's been moving furniture professionally since 1994
- Furniture disassembly and reassembly at destination — beds, desks, shelving units, wardrobes, dining tables
- Appliance disconnect/reconnect (standard hookups; gas appliances coordinated with licensed technician)
- Floor and doorframe protection (masonite boards, padded corner guards, adhesive-free floor runners)
- Post-move walkthrough against inventory manifest — every item checked at destination before the crew leaves
- Long-distance routes: Ontario, Quebec, NB, NS, PEI, select MB and AB destinations — with expansion to additional Manitoba and Alberta routes planned for 2027
- Average local move: 4–8 hours for a 2-bedroom home
- Pricing: weight (certified scale — loaded truck minus empty truck) × distance + accessorials (stairs, long carries over 75 feet, shuttle service, storage-in-transit)
Whether you're relocating across Toronto or shipping your household 1,700 km to Fredericton, this moving company handles every detail from floor protection to certified weigh-in. Diego Vasquez personally checks weather forecasts along every long distance moving Canada route the night before departure and has rerouted trucks around ice storms, highway closures, and one memorable moose sighting near Sudbury. Our 0.4% damage claim rate — six times better than the industry average of 2.5–3.5% — is the result of protocols he redesigned from scratch in 2019. Planning ahead? Download our free Long-Distance Move Timeline Planner to start your 8-week countdown.
Know your number → Book a Video Survey
[ Corporate Relocation ]
Your HR team sends us one email. We handle the rest — surveys, quotes, scheduling, storage, and a single consolidated invoice. Average per-employee cost for group moves: $2,743. That's 34% less than what enterprise relocation management companies quoted for the same scope — and we don't require 50 moves per year to take your call.
- Single point-of-contact project manager for all employee moves — Jordan Flett manages every corporate account personally, bringing 5 years of office management experience from Shopify's Ottawa campus
- Video survey + binding quote for each employee within 48 hours
- Coordinated scheduling aligned to company timelines — we schedule backward from your hard deadline, not forward from our truck availability
- Temporary storage for employees between homes (no holding fee for first 30 days on group contracts)
- Post-move reporting: cost summaries per employee, timeline adherence metrics, damage claim status, and satisfaction measurement — the data your finance team actually needs
- Consolidated invoicing — one bill to the company, not 14 separate invoices
- Minimum contract: 1 employee. No annual minimums. No middleman markup.
- Furniture delivery for new office setup can be bundled on return trips, reducing cost
Our relocation services were purpose-built for startups and mid-size companies with 5–100 employees — the ones enterprise RMCs ignore because they don't generate $2M+ in annual fees. When Athena Robotics needed 14 engineers relocated from Waterloo to Toronto in 6 weeks, Jordan coordinated the entire project: video surveys for all 14 homes in 5 business days, binding quotes within 48 hours each, moves staggered across three weeks, and temporary storage for 3 employees who hadn't found housing yet. Zero workdays lost. Download Jordan's Corporate Relocation Planning Template to see the same project timeline spreadsheet we use internally.
Relocating a team? → Talk to Jordan[ Newcomer Relocation Assistance ]
You'll have a furnished temporary home within 24 hours of landing, your container tracked from port to front door, and a neighborhood guide in your language — covering groceries, transit, schools, healthcare, and banking. Over 400 families have used this program since 2018, reducing average container delivery time to 18 days vs. the 30–45 day industry average for unassisted newcomers.
- Receiving-side coordination: port-of-entry pickup for international shipments, customs broker liaison to expedite container release
- Last-mile delivery from Port of Montreal, Halifax, or Vancouver to your city — tracked end-to-end
- Landing Kit loaner package: mattresses, cookware, linens, high chair (delivered within 24 hours of your arrival so you're not sleeping on the floor)
- Neighborhood orientation guides customized to landing city — including grocery stores carrying ingredients from home, nearby schools, pediatric clinics accepting new patients, and transit routes
- Utility setup guidance (hydro, internet, tenant insurance — that thing your landlord requires and nobody mentions at the airport)
- 90-day phone support — weekly check-in calls for the first month, then on-demand through Day 90
- Available in: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Igbo, Mandarin, Hindi
- Program designed by Amara Okonkwo, who relocated from Lagos to Toronto in 2012 and spent her first two weeks on an air mattress waiting for a container stuck in Montreal
This program exists because Amara lived the problem herself. She designed every guide and checklist by asking: "What did I wish someone had told me when I landed at Pearson with two suitcases and no winter coat?" The Afolabi family case study shows the full program in action — 5 family members, container delayed 11 days, Landing Kit deployed in 24 hours, children enrolled in school within a week. Download our free Newcomer's First 90 Days in Canada guide (34 pages, available in English, French, and Spanish) for the week-by-week checklist Amara wrote from firsthand experience. Or read the full blog version covering SIN applications, banking, healthcare, and buying a winter coat before November.
Arriving in Canada? → Let's plan your landing[ Packing & Climate-Controlled Storage ]
Every item is wrapped in commercial-grade materials, labeled with room destination and contents category, and tied to a sequential inventory manifest. In storage, your belongings sit at 10°C–22°C with humidity control — protecting wood from cracking, leather from splitting, electronics from corroding, and vinyl records from warping. You can request any item back within 48 hours.
- Full-service packing: double-walled corrugated boxes, 3-mil stretch wrap, acid-free tissue for delicates, cell kits for glassware, custom crating for artwork and mirrors
- Partial packing option: crew handles fragile and high-value items (china, crystal, electronics, artwork), you pack the rest — a good middle ground for cost-conscious moves
- Packing performed day before move to minimize disruption — your kitchen is functional until the last possible moment
- Storage: vault-based increments (~150 cubic feet per vault), month-to-month contracts, no long-term commitment required
- Barcode and photo catalog on intake — Priya Sharma implemented the tracking system that reduced retrieval errors to under 0.4%
- 48-hour retrieval/delivery on stored items — need your winter coat in October? Your grandmother's serving platter for Thanksgiving? We'll locate it by barcode and deliver or make it available for pickup at our Toronto facility
- Month-to-month contracts, no long-term commitment — if your condo closing date slips three weeks, your storage cost adjusts, not your stress level
- Insurance options through Canadian Life's carrier or your own policy — see our Valuation Coverage Comparison Sheet for a side-by-side breakdown
Kitchen packing alone takes 2–3 hours for the average household and accounts for 40% of damage claims industry-wide. Our packing techniques are based on the training curriculum Tomás Pereira runs during every new hire's 2-week onboarding — covering material selection by item type, labeling protocols, and specific wrapping sequences for glassware, electronics, and artwork. Non-climate-controlled storage units in Toronto can swing from -15°C in January to 40°C in July — we maintain 10°C–22°C year-round with active humidity control because your belongings deserve better than a temperature lottery. Download our free Packing Room-by-Room Guide or Storage Preparation Checklist from the Resource Hub.
Need packing or storage? → Get a quote[ Furniture Delivery & Installation ]
Your furniture arrives inspected, documented, and assembled — with any manufacturer damage photographed at our warehouse before delivery, protecting your warranty claim before we leave the loading dock. Whether it's a single sectional sofa for your living room or a 156-piece rollout across three café locations, we handle receiving, inspection, transport, and assembly end-to-end.
- Warehouse receiving with damage inspection and photo documentation on intake — if the manufacturer shipped a scratched tabletop, we document it before it touches your floor
- Inventory verification against purchase orders — every piece cross-referenced before dispatch
- Sorted delivery to multiple locations on same day — coordinated scheduling aligned to your opening dates and occupancy timelines
- Assembly including wall-mounting (shelving, TV brackets, banquettes, display fixtures)
- Crews carry standard tools and hardware; specialty fasteners confirmed during pre-delivery call so there are no delays on-site
- Serves both individual consumers and commercial clients — cafés, offices, retail, schools
- NovaBrew Coffee Co. case study: 156 pieces to 3 locations in one day, two manufacturer-damaged items caught at warehouse before delivery
This service started because we noticed a gap: furniture manufacturers deliver to a loading dock, not to a finished room. Someone has to receive the shipment, verify it matches the purchase order, inspect for damage, and then transport and assemble it at the final location — and that someone should document manufacturer defects before you accept delivery, or your warranty claim evaporates. We've handled furniture delivery and installation for food and beverage chains, retail stores, offices, and schools across the GTA. If you're a business needing multiple locations furnished on a synchronized timeline, this is the service that ensures your grand opening date doesn't move because the furniture didn't arrive. Need a Certificate of Insurance for your building? Download our Building Access & COI Request Template — we also issue COIs within 24 hours of request at no charge.
Expecting a delivery? → Schedule itWhat Our Clients Say
My mother passed away and I needed to move the contents of her Fredericton home into storage in Toronto — about 1,400 km. I was grieving and couldn't deal with logistics. Mariana personally walked me through a video survey of the house, helped me decide what to keep, and had a crew in Fredericton within 10 days. Everything arrived in perfect condition. Her father's china — my grandmother's china, actually — was packed so carefully that the tissue paper didn't even have a crease. I was quoted $12,000 by another long distance moving Canada company. Canadian Life did it for $7,400.Catherine FongProfessor, University of Toronto — Estate move, April 2023
We moved from Calgary to Toronto with two kids under five and a dog. I was terrified. The Canadian Life crew showed up in Scarborough with floor runners already unrolled before they brought a single box inside. They knew which boxes were the kids' room — they'd labeled everything in Calgary with colored tape by room. My son's crib was assembled before I finished walking the dog around the block.Rachel MoreauMarketing Director, Pelican Health — Moved July 2023
I arrived from Manila in November 2022 with my wife and mother-in-law. We didn't have winter boots, our container was stuck in Vancouver, and our landlord wouldn't let us move in without proof of tenant insurance — which nobody told us about. Amara from Canadian Life walked us through getting tenant insurance online, delivered a Landing Kit the same day, and called us every week for three months to ask if we needed anything. When our container finally arrived, the crew unpacked everything and even took the cardboard to recycling. I didn't have to ask.Jerome AgustinSoftware Developer — Newcomer relocation, November 2022
Frequently Asked Questions
Peak season (May–September): 6–8 weeks. Off-peak (October–April): 3–4 weeks. The critical date to lock in is your delivery date, not your pickup date — return-route truck scheduling fills up first. Work backward from your lease start or closing date. Our Long-Distance Move Timeline Planner provides a printable 8-week countdown covering booking timelines, utility transfers, mail forwarding, school enrollment, and provincial health card applications.
Legally, movers in Canada offer "valuation," not insurance. Basic released value covers your goods at $0.60 per pound per article — so a 40-pound TV gets you $24 if it's destroyed. Full value protection means repair, replacement, or cash settlement at current market value. It typically costs 1–2% of your declared shipment value, and it's the only coverage worth having. Also check your homeowner's or tenant's policy — some cover goods in transit, though deductibles may make small claims impractical. We break down the full comparison — including a worked example — in our free Valuation Coverage Comparison Sheet.
Three factors: weight (measured on a certified scale — loaded truck minus empty truck), distance (actual driving route kilometers), and accessorials (stairs, long carries over 75 feet, shuttle service, storage-in-transit). Canadian Life provides a binding total after a video or in-home survey. The number on the quote is the number on the invoice. Want to lower that number? Every 100 cubic feet you remove from a shipment saves $350–$500 in transport costs. Download our free Pre-Move Downsizing Worksheet for the room-by-room framework that saved the Whitfield family $3,100 on their Fredericton-to-Toronto move.
Yes — our program was built for companies moving 1–25 employees. Most relocation management companies require 25–50 moves per year as a minimum. We don't. You get one project manager (Jordan Flett), consolidated billing, coordinated scheduling, and temporary storage. Per-employee cost drops with group moves because trucks run the same corridor. See the Athena Robotics case study for full numbers: 14 employees, 6 weeks, $2,743 per move — 34% less than the enterprise RMC bid. Or read our blog post on why startups shouldn't use enterprise relocation firms.
This happens more often than you'd expect, and it's fixable. Your container clears customs at a port (usually Montreal, Halifax, or Vancouver) and needs last-mile transport — that can take 5–20 days. In the meantime, our newcomer team delivers a Landing Kit to your address within 24 hours: loaner mattresses, cookware, linens, and essentials. When the container clears, we handle pickup, transport, unpacking, and Landing Kit retrieval — all in one trip. The Afolabi family went through exactly this — container stuck for 11 days, Landing Kit deployed same-day, container delivered in 18 days total vs. the 30–45 day average. Download our free Newcomer's First 90 Days in Canada guide for the full settling-in checklist.
Yes — 10°C to 22°C year-round with active humidity control. Non-climate-controlled units in Toronto can swing from -15°C in January to 40°C in July, which cracks wood, splits leather, corrodes electronics, and warps vinyl records. Every stored item is barcoded, cataloged, and photographed on intake by Priya Sharma's warehouse team. You get an online inventory, and we can retrieve any specific item within 48 hours. Download our free Storage Preparation Checklist for the 14-item guide to preparing belongings for storage — including why you should never wrap upholstered furniture in plastic.
Binding only. Always. Non-binding estimates are the moving industry's most common source of consumer complaints — a low number wins the job, then accessorial fees appear on delivery day when you have no leverage. Canadian Life's binding quote means the number on the quote is the number on the invoice. If we underestimated, we absorb the difference. This has been company policy since Mariana Vasquez-Olsen signed the incorporation papers in 2013. We wrote an entire blog post dissecting bait-and-switch pricing — including a real line-by-line comparison showing a 53% cost increase on a non-binding estimate. Our Binding vs. Non-Binding Estimates Explained PDF covers the legal details.
Receiving-side coordination at the port, last-mile delivery to your home, Landing Kit (loaner furniture and essentials within 24 hours), neighborhood orientation guide customized to your city, utility setup guidance, and 90-day phone support. Available in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Igbo, Mandarin, and Hindi. The program was designed by Amara Okonkwo, who immigrated from Lagos to Toronto in 2012. Over 400 families have used the program since 2018. We also partner with settlement agencies and immigration lawyers — see our Newcomers & Immigration Services industry page for details on how we coordinate with your existing support network.
Ready to Know Your Number?
Every move starts with a 15-minute video survey and a binding quote. The price we quote is the price you pay — that's been the rule since Mariana Vasquez-Olsen signed the incorporation papers in 2013. Whether it's a 2-bedroom local move, a 14-employee corporate relocation, or a newcomer family arriving from overseas, the process is the same: survey, quote, move. No mysteries.
Get Your Binding Quote →Or call directly: (519) 988-6353. Same-day callbacks, always.