Moving to Canada can be expensive. Here is an example of a budget of a family of four (two adults and two young children) when coming to Canada as independent immigrants under the Federal Skilled Worker Class (example is in Canadian Dollars - CAD) (This is not an example of a sponsored family):

Item	CAD Cost	Comments
Government Cost Recovery Fee	$1 400	This has to be paid when applying for permanent residence, at a High Commission. It is paid to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration of Canada.
Right of Permanent Residence Fee	$980	Immigration Tax that has to be paid before visa is issued - which can be one or two years after the initial application at the High Commission. This is a type of immigration tax to be paid before the visa is issued.
Airline Tickets	$7 000	Estimate
Medical Tests	$400	Estimate
Moving furniture to Canada	$7 000	Estimate
Money to bring with - Settlement funds (not needed if you have a permanent job offer)	$38 000	The Immigration manual, require independent immigrants to bring some funds to Canada. This depends on the size of the family. If an immigrant have family locally, or will be getting free accommodation, it might be possible to get a permanent residence visa to Canada with less funds, than is required by the immigration regulations. Matrixvisa Inc will assist immigrants in this regard as well.
Total	$54 780	This total exclude the immigration consultant's fee.

The above-mentioned total does not include other costs in Canada, such as the replacement of furniture and appliances, getting a drivers license, buying  car, etc. It also does not include opportunity costs (the cost for being unemployed for two or three weeks/months: An immigrant could have earned a large some of money in his/her country of origin during the time the immigrant was unemployed here in Canada). 

Other Scenarios where these costs will be less
The cost for a single person without dependents are obviously much less. Similarly the cost for a person who will be sponsored by family already in Canada; or a family coming to Canada where the principle applicant has an permanent job offer in Canada - is also less.

The high cost of migrating might look rather dark, but look at  “Why choose Canada?" to see why it is worth the effort and expense.