You're out of luck. Any major city here in Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary) is expensive. But, these cities are routinely in the top 10 for best places to live, so you get what you pay for (kinda).
Montreal isn't very expensive. Sub $1k for a decent apartment outside the core - I pay a bit more and am within a 10-15 minute walk from dozens of startups in the Plateau.
Who said anything about major cities? There's plenty of cheap places to live in Canada. That's like saying you can't live cheap in the US because NY, LA and Chicago are expensive.