I moved out of country for about three thousand dollars in total and most of that was moving fees for shipping my possessions across the country. Canadian immigration costs are actually extremely reasonable and your out of pocket fees to the governor for applications will usually be under a thousand dollars (mine was especially affordable since I immigrated on a fiance visa).

Everyone’s situation is different, so don’t feel pressured to leave - especially if you have a strong social safety net in the form of family and friends… I unfortunately didn’t really have that.

My main point though is that even people of privilege with high paying jobs (I’m a software developer myself) can suddenly get hit with a series of tragedies or other events that unbalance us and put us, in particular, in a place that we’ll struggle to dig ourselves out of. There was a time in university when I ran out of meds and got hit by a bout of depression and escaped it purely by the intervention of a friend getting me to call the pharmacy and authorize a third party medication pickup and then going to grab the meds. That experience terrified me because of how helpless I felt trying to organize my life while experiencing a lack of meds and withdrawal.

Shit can be hard - and yea, we’re not all the same… so my advice might not work for you.

Edit: I checked - and the visa I got my PR card on is now 1,205 $CAD potentially with additional fees for things like photos and background checks. The business PR path is 2385 $CAD - full information available here: https://ircc.canada.ca/english/information/fees/fees.asp