Canada does have free tuition. It is called OSAP grants. Just have your kid work for a couple years after high school then apply for OSAP. Basically some kind of low paying part time or full-time job. (They will mature during these years - and pick a worthwhile program to study. Not something useless like fine arts or philosophy.) That way, they don't have to include your income in their OSAP application. OSAP will then give them a ton of grants for University or College. When they graduate, they will basically owe nothing.
I went to uni straight out of high school, so yeah, my experience doesn't quite fit that. I was forced to put my parents on my OSAP application, and my parents make a tidy sum, which really crimped me. Doesn't make sense either, since my parents didn't help pay my way. I basically got $1500 in OSAP per term, and $3000 on average from scholarships. But my tuition was $6800 per term, plus another ~$800 for textbooks, then $2200 for rent and utilities, plus about $2000 for car payments, maintenance and gas, $1000 for groceries, and a few other expenses besides.
All told, I think I figured out in my budget that my expenses amounted to $14,000 per 4 months, with only $4,500 of that being covered by OSAP and scholarships. I was making about $345 take-home from working 24 hours a week while attending university, which netted me $5,500 for the 4 months. That still left me $4K short every 4 months, which was covered by bank loans. Graduated with $32K of bank debt and just over $12K in OSAP. And that's for someone who received $25K worth of scholarships and worked 24 hours per week!
So I agree with you: I think it's best to have your kid work straight out of high school. Not only does this firm up the question of whether or not going to university is the right choice, but also helps them decide what program they want to pursue, and helps them do it financially.