The PLSQ is the Quebec Division 3 league. Their champion now participates in the Canadian Championship as of 2018. A new team has been announce bringing the number of teams to 8. (French only) http://www.plsq.ca/news/la-plsq-accueille-le-cs-fabrose CS Fabrose will play from Laval, Quebec as of 2018. The owner says that there's over 2600 young players in that part of Laval alone and he wanted to found a D3 team to give them an opportunity to perform at a higher level. They already have a U18 team. That's fantastic news. Hoping the other provinces follows Ontario and Quebec lead
Good. Successful, sustainable regional leagues are what Canada needs to help support the CPL. Now if we can just get a Western Leagues in BC and/or Alberta.
BC does have the PCSL and Alberta has the AMSL. These are both basically elite amateur leagues.which could form the basis for growing a D3 league. There are a few elite amateur leagues in the Atlantic provinces. An Atlantic wide D3 league could be feasible as well.
I don't know if there is enough player mass to have functional leagues in those areas or clubs with the financial wherewithal to operate to that level. The BCRT3 study and launch attempt proved as much. I think ideally the Maritime teams should join the PLSQ and the Prairie and BC teams should create a western Div 3 league.
I agree that it's most practical for any D3 presence in Atlantic Canada to be part of PLSQ, but not sure if Quebec would want to have them as part of it. That said, QMJHL includes several Atlantic cities so maybe so. A single D3 league for Western Canada also makes sense, though I think it would be best to start it in BC/Alb only and grow into Sask/Man once stable.
The only Manitoba team of any importance right now is WSA Winnipeg, and they play in the PDL, which makes sense for them - a lot less travel than going all the way to the coast for games. Any Sask-based teams might consider that as well. Just AB/BC would have a critical mass of population equal to Quebec.
Right now WSA plays games as far as 2200 km away. Victoria is 2400 km away so playing in a western D3 league would probably be better for travel costs considering that they wouldn't have to incur travel costs in USD (plus there's no doubt some admin costs involved in getting players over the border). Their closest US competitor is 1100 km away, just slightly less than the distance to Calgary.
Atlantic Canada is tricky because of geography. Linking with the PLSQ makes sense until you consider that only one PLSQ club is east of Montreal. So there isn't really much to be gained on the travel front. On the other hand, there are very few cities in Atlantic Canada that are big enough to support a D3 team. So if you don't link to Quebec you're looking at a very small league (which may still be preferable to frequent trips to Montreal). I agree although even here it may ultimately be preferable to have one league for BC (mostly west of the mountains) and another for the prairies just for reasons of travel.
That is true that there are too few cities in AC to support even a D3 league. If you set the population bar at 100k (metro), that's only about 5 potential teams, and if Halifax should join the CPL, well then yeah it's kind of dead in the water. It's a shame to leave out that region of the country, but it may be an unhappy reality. Another idea is to have a BC/ALB league and a operate Man/Sask league, but include Thunder Bay should there be an interest for the Chill to join a Canadian D3 system. Even then though, assuming CPL teams in Winnipeg and Saskatoon, you're looking at a pretty small league there as well.
While I am a strongly in favour of not mixing MLS and CPL teams in the same market, I'm less concerned about mixing D3 teams and D1 teams. From my local contacts, I know that the Kingston L1O team had a budget of about $50 000 per year. Admittedly this was to run a bare bones team but it was functional. Kingston had a sponsor for about half the cost and made up the rest from the club fees players (of all ages) paid to play. Games were free to attend so they had zero ticket revenue. The Kingston team folded when the sponsor pulled out. I understand the London team draws about 800 fans per game and has a deal where you get admission plus a hotdog and a pop for $10. If it costs, say, $5 each for food and labour, the team would still keep $5 per ticket for costs to run the team. That would give them annual ticket revenue for running the team of something like $40 to $50 k depending on how many league cup and playoff matches they host. All this to say that, with a reasonable mix of sponsorship and a fairly low number of cheap tickets, it should be possible to run a viable D3 team in a small city or even on the fringes of a market that also hosts a D1 team.