For a comparison of some salaries in the lower echelons of the aviation ladder in Canada I offer you these (from personal experience):
Bush pilot, small cessna $1500-2400/mo.
Bush pilot, Beaver/Otter $2200-5000/mo.
Flight instructor $15-25/hr
B1900 F/O $24,000-33,000/yr
The bush pilots obviously live outside of 'society' in general, so cost of living is usually fairly low. Large sacrifices must be made at all stages to move up the career ladder as you can see a large pay cut is in order to join a Tier III regional on a B1900 (minimum approx. 2000 hrs.). All pay gripes aside, we've got a pretty good thing going in Canada and I plan to stay.