Why is this considered hard? A date flexible return flight from Toronto is $935 ($725 USD). Compared to what a developer can make in really any Western country, I don't really see what the issue is.
In my Western European country, we make less than $20k/y on average, so that is kind of high (~ 2 months' rent) for developers on the lower end of the scale.
I'm not arguing against you, just pointing out that salaries for devs are very variable even in the Western countries.
He quoted you a price from Toronto. You can probably find Ryan air for under 200€ roundtrip - bigger problem will be that you'll probably spend 2 days on it.
Also 20k $/year as a developer ?! You earn more in Eastern Europe unless you're a PHP "developer" or something like that.
https://nomadforum.io/t/i-m-kaspar-director-of-estonia-s-e-r...