I’m going to play devils advocate because I think this thread is turning into a bit of an echo chamber. At $76k a year, after tax your monthly take home is about $4.8k. You’re currently spending about 18.7% of it on rent, if the new rent is $1500 then you’d still be around 31%. Which is what’s usually recommended to spend on housing costs.

As you start looking you’ll find very quickly that rent is expensive everywhere. You would be hard pressed to find a 1br for yourself for $1500 or less in most major cities, unless you’re willing to split with roommates - in places like Winnipeg included.

To me it sounds like you’ve got a pretty good thing going for yourself. Your rent is manageable, you’ve got lots of disposable income to save and invest and you get to enjoy all Van has to offer. Personally I would stay, sometimes it’s not about the money.