About renting system and tax system

Typically, the landlord in Canada will want to do a background search on you. Judging by the fact that you have not been in Canada before, they may not be able to pull any information on you at all. In that case, meeting you face to face is important. In the absence of the ability to perform background check, it would be recommended that you get a letter from your previous landlord (from your home country) attesting to you being a good on your payments etc. If own your own home, perhaps some kind of paper to show that you did own your own home. This will help ease your renting search process. Of course, cheaper and less restrictive landlords may not be too concern of these things. However, chances are, they might be in a bad area where all these things doesn't matter to them and the quality of the building may not be at its best.