As a possibly less expensive and certainly less bureaucratic alternative you might consider catching the ferry to SE Alaska. You can take a BC ferry to Prince Rupert and then take an AK ferry to say Prince of Wales Island, or you can take the AK ferry from Bellingham, WA. I suppose you could also drive to Prince Rupert or to one of the AK ports served by the AK Marine Highway. No guide is required in AK for black bears. Prince of Wales Island has lots of bears and lots of old logging roads, at least on the north end. No gun registration is required (the reason I no longer go to Canada to shoot trap) in Alaska. The largest black bears I have ever seen are on Prince of Wales Island as there are no brown bears to eat them and the habitat is ideal. Spring bear hunting coincides with king salmon fishing, and while POW black bears taste better than any I have had anywhere else, no black bear meat tastes as good as an ocean caught king salmon. Also, you would want to check on wolf season as anywhere on Prince of Wales Island you can howl at night and receive all kinds of answers from wolves. You can also shoot seals and sea otters but you need to first convince the feds of some percentage of Indian blood.
You can pitch your tent on the AK ferry, and they have showers. Therefore you need not buy a ferry cabin. Selection of ammo in stores is not as good now as it was say one year ago. I have sometimes used a Lee hand press to reload ammo on the AK ferries.
