Housing is expensive in Canada, but it's absolutely not uniform. $2500/mo starting is crazy, which city are you sourcing these claims for? I live in a major city (but not Vancouver or Toronto, obviously) and if you're just trying to survive, you can live with roommates for $700-900, possibly less depending on your luck. Apartments, studios and other types of housing for one are about $1500 and up. Then you can go to Quebec and enjoy slighter cheaper housing still, even in the big cities. There's some middle ground between downtown Toronto and some mining town in northern Manitoba.