You could also look at Claymore’s preauthorized cash contribution (PACC) plan, which does allow you regularly purchase ETFs each month without trading commissions, so long as your brokerage allows it:
http://www.claymoreinvestments.ca/etf/investment-services/pacc/

National Bank owns Altamira, which offers several very inexpensive index funds with broad market exposure (see the Canadian Index Funds page on this blog). All discount brokers offer wide access to index funds from other providers, but if you’re opening a new account, consider TD Waterhouse so you can access their e-Series funds, the cheapest in Canada.

I have recently started taking a much more active interest in my investment portfolio. After I discovered how much the MER on my mutual funds can cost me over the long run – and how cleverly they are hidden in the fund itself – I was a little choked. The good news – I am 29, and have a very long horizon ahead of me, so now is the ideal time to learn and switch things up.

Periodic investing has worked well for me because it’s so easy – I don’t have to do anything. I want to shift my investments to index funds, but here’s the problem: I don’t want to pay the high MERs for my growing portfolio (which currently doesn’t have index funds, yet…), but ETFs are not practical for periodic investing only because the brokerage fee on $250 invested bi-weekly would negate the cost savings. So here’s my solution – move my existing portfolio to indexed ETFs, and continue periodic investments in indexed mutuals until there is sufficient capital to convert to an ETF that the brokerage fee is less than an MER on mutual funds. I hope to God that made sense.

National Bank Securities (my current provider of mutual funds) offers only a handful of index funds, some with MERs above 1%, and many of which don’t even track broad based indices. Here’s my question: what are the best alternatives to National Bank Securites that a) offer a variety of indexed mutual funds, with b) MERs that are more reasonable than 1%, and c) that track indices that are more broadly-based than the Dow (like the S&P 500, Russel, or anything with total market exposure)?

Any suggestions for fund dealers would be appreciated. Thanks!

I love that stat that shows what a 2% difference makes over 30 years.