The current official framework requires a nonrefundable DHS processing fee and, after vetting, a gift; each included family member has a separate fee and gift. A consultancy's charges are a separate private contract. Re-verify the official terms before paying either.
Two bills, and only one is the program's
Hypothetical example: a Hampton family receive one all-inclusive quotation and understandably read it as the cost of the program. At least two distinct things are folded into it. There is whatever the framework itself calls for, which should be taken from the government page on the day the family decides rather than from a slide; the current official terms describe the DHS processing fee as nonrefundable and require the gift only after vetting.
There is whatever the consultancy bills for its services, a private contract that no government sets. A gift, unlike an investment, is not returned. Outside both sit the Canadian tax consequences of raising the funds and the cost of independent legal advice, which on a decision this size is worth buying from someone with nothing to sell.