The only thing I had to pay for was the surgical soap purchased at any pharmacy, pre-surgery.

@Lilac-JadeCanada Wow, that’s generous!!

Dental care isn’t subsidised here, so that can be pretty expensive.

BTW, my cousin’s son lives in Canada. He flies one of your chinook helicopters.

@Zealandia I have full dentures, so am not on the dental part of my medical insurance.

Canada is a big place.

British Columbia comparison map.....

@Lilac-JadeCanada
Thanks for the cool map! Good to put NZ into perspective with Canada. We’re a tiddler of a country.

I’m aware that big parts of Canada, especially up North have no one living there.

The population density of New Zealand in 2022 was 19.37 people per square kilometer.

In 2021, Canada had a population density of about 4.35 people per square kilometer. The country has one of the lowest population densities in the world, as the total population is very small in relation to the dimensions of the land.

Too crowded for you here

However the uk…
The population density for the UK was 279 people per square kilometre at mid-2022

@Zealandia We're second after Russia in size.

Yes, I like space around me, for sure. Not a people fan anyway, & keep much to myself. My kids, my kitties, & my online friends are all just fine for me. Then I have deer visit my yards, front & back, regularly too.

@Lilac-JadeCanada The deer you see are presumably native to Canada? Do you leave anything out for them?

All deer here are introduced and in the wild are considered to be pests. As deer damage the native ecosystem. They’re very wary of humans for obvious reasons, so don’t visit areas where people live.

@Zealandia Yes, we have deer everywhere but we are a small enough city, that they've lost their fear of us, & visit all over the place.
No, we don't leave anything out.....NEVER FEED WILDLIFE.....EVER! We leave them alone, & only use cameras, nothing else.
These are a couple of deer who ''supervised'' my late husband while he replaced our side fence between us & the neighbour.

@Lilac-JadeCanada Thanks for the picture, the deer certainly are very tame.

Yes, don’t feed the wildlife!

Story about bear attacks in Japan, thought you might be interested:
[rnz.co.nz]

@Zealandia Yes, once they become accustomed to human food, they'll keep going to it, & they have very long memories for where it is. Re-locating them doesn't end it, as they'll travel back to where they found that food. The pandemic with it's lockdows was also an open invitation to come into cities/towns, etc.

@Lilac-JadeCanada Good points about how access to human food changes hunting patterns.

@Zealandia Which is why most of us in this area of the country, know to never feed wildlife, nor leave food outside anywhere. When we used to camp in the wilderness, we kept our food totally away from our camp site at night.

The healthcare system in America is all about making money and trying to convince you that if you had any other system you would never get the care that you really need. People fight constantly for their share of my $174 a month Medicare and so many lies are told. Then they tell us all that it is all about us. I have recently went on the warpath about Big Pharma and I will no longer take statins. If my doctors does not like that it is her problem.