one common website where people look for jobs (and almost everything else), is www.craigslist.com
you can get a rough idea there.. usually summer time is the busiest period, or during holiday seasons.. I'm at Vancouver, BC.. where cost of living is sky rocket high.. but if you live further out (like in Surrey or New Westminster), you can get away with slightly cheaper rent and stuffs in general.. with the skytrain, it takes about an hour +/- to get to downtown. Lots of people rent a house with several room-mates too, which will make it cheaper. The lowest I've paid in rent is $350 in Vancouver - it's a very small room (not the downtown core, but about 15 minutes away by skytrain, not that bad). But the con of living further out means you have to spend money on your transportation too.. Go to http://www.translink.ca/ and click on Fares and Passes to take a look at how much public transit would cost. Different cities have different costs.. so check them out obviously, depending which city you want to go to.
When you work and file your taxes, you can claim those for your tax refunds (only if you buy monthly passes, I believe) so it's not that bad.