That Statscan avg includes QC where just a few years ago they were rioting in the streets over increases to their $3000/year tuition.  Remove QC and the "real" average (i.e. in the ROC) is higher.  Living away from home, my 1st kid's cost at Queens' was about $20K/yr, my 2nd kid also lives away from home at McMaster at a cost of about $18K/year - both for engineering programs.