As for banking, I found "PC Financial" to have the cheapest options. They are a low cost brand of CIBC. Other banks tried to tell me that PC Financial does not offer special services like TFSA and RRSP or free cheques. In fact, PC Financial offers all of that for free. Of course, there are services PC Financial does not offer (like safes) and in the beginning your daily cash withdrawal might be limited, but overall this offer is saving me a lot of money.
I think I had an e-mail from the recently - if I bring new customers, both of us will get a little money for that. So if anyone is interested... But I'd have to check the details.