Seems to depend on who is your shipper. UPS is CRIMINAL when shipping into Canada from the US. Conversely, I have NEVER been charged ANYTHING when receiving something from the US via USPS.
Agreed, the part the Government takes is nothing compared to the "brokerage fee", but it is much more faster than USPS/Canada Post. Too bad there are no resellers for BFL in Canada.
This is helpful for figuring out the total cost of some things:
http://www.thefinalcost.com/ This is a bit of a scam... I called UPS to complain about it once, and they told me $20 of it was a COD fee to collect the duty/taxes at the door. You can apparently set up an account with them so they can bill your account instead of at the door... but I just decided I'de never use UPS again.