He did say he charges $40 per man hour, which I ok'd.

There is a Newcomer to Canada mortgage - high ratio or conventional program for qualified immigrants who have relocated to and established permanent residency in Canada within the last 3 to 5 years (depending on lender).

Being a landed immigrant, you need to be careful to not compromise any visa that you have until your permanent residency status is secured.

Has anyone used either an FHA construction or construction-to-permanent loan?  

Also, keep in mind that this is not a permanent decision.

Although, you may may have to sue DOT, to make them provide you permanent legal access through and across others.  

-You can paint the walls with DryLock or some other paint but it really doesn't solve your problem in any permanent fashion.

Builders work off of deposits and you would need to line up a lender that will work with construction to permanent FHA loans.

The loan is permanent, not in/out/in/out like a HELOC for fix and flip or home improvements.Ask around in your local REIA (join local REIAs) for investor friendly banks. 

What the contractor promised was that he would use jack posts for the support beam and put down two cement columns and then insert a permanent thick wooden or steel beam once the wall was removed and columns set.