No definitely not implying that Ontario is faster. I don't think that any are faster, but if one were, it wouldn't be Ontario! The licensing body is terrible--even had issues where they were "experiencing delays due to updating their phone lines" a few months ago. Realistically, they were just refusing to even answer the phone.
It is possible to get correspondence from NNAS within 6 months. But is it probable? Some have received their Advisory Report within 4 months, others 12 months. I was educated in the US and it still took 7 months even though you'd think it would be a little more straight forward.
Good question on the fees. Ha! I laugh because NNAS is a joke. It's a money grab. NNAS is an American enterprise. It is run by CGFNS, with the NNAS name to look like it's Canadian. The NNAS office in Toronto has like 2 staff in it who refuse to answer any questions. It's basically a store front to make it look legitimate. In reality, your nursing education will be assessed by an American in Philadelphia who is not even a nurse, let alone a Canadian nurse! You are paying in American dollars because the whole thing is American. So you will spend about $1000 CAD and a nurse won't even look at your documents until you apply to the provincial licensing body. In addition, the Canadian provincial licensing bodies are well aware that the NNAS assessment does not adequately evaluate the comparability of your education to Canadian nursing education. But they don't care, because they just want the process to not fall under them, because they are overseen somewhat by government. Since they farm it our to a company, they can claim "sorry, if it's unfair or invalid, you'll have to call NNAS because we have no control" every time something is wildly wrong. I cannot believe this hasn't turned into an all-out protest. But the licensing bodies are relying on the fact that applicants from other countries want to come to Canada and don't want to make a scene. Also, many don't know how to make complaints.
I could go on for days about the problems with NNAS and CNO for that matter...