Australian pilots working in Canada
altiplano
I tend to agree with your sentiments. I'm a Brit 15000hr helicopter pilot. Have permanent residence, married to a Canadian and been here 20 odd years. The work is even slow for us right now although fires picking up, and a busy summer coming up.
The days of employers sponsoring people for work permits is over. Government crack downs on Temporary Foreign Worker visas etc. not making it easy for anyone from other countries. Lots of Canadian pilots looking for work including high time pilots. Not saying impossible but not as it was. I would do some serious thinking it's not cheap to travel to the North looking for work. Any of the guys on this thread saying go to Rankin Inlet etc ever checked the airline prices, no roads head up the bay....you will be horrified at the prices. I know we do crew changes via First Air, Calm Air, Canadian North et al up North.
Good luck you'll need it.