Cost for host family is very high! Is there another way?

Good morning Sasha,
The condition to hire an au pair in Canada are indeed quite selective, paperwork intensive and expensive. The good news is that there is a work around with the "Work Holiday" Visa.
The Work Holiday is a bilateral agreement between Canada and a list of other countries that allows the visa holder to come over to Canada for a certain period of time (usually a year) and able to legally work.
You can find more details here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp, especially for the list of participant countries. This would allow you to hire someone as an au pair (or something as close to it as Canada doesn't have a proper au pair program).
Once you have find someone interested to come to Canada (lot of candidates), you just have to ensure he is from the list of countries and in possession of the Visa or applying for it. But I assume that candidates are aware of this work around and some already in the process of applying or maybe already in Canada wiling to become au pair.
I hope this information helps.
KInd regards,
Julien, from the connectAuPair team