Agree, used suits is the way to go for your first one (or two). My first two were used Suomy's, just a few hundred each (less than 5 but forget exact). Crashed them beyond repair. It they were both new that'd be a few grand gone. All my gear was used at first except my helmet. In fact I'm still using my first set of gloves, albeit they should probably be set aside as spares..
I messaged Jason last year didn't get a reply, not sure if he's still selling the Arlen Ness stuff. But Motovan is their distributor so anyone who deals with them should be able to get Arlen Ness.
Based on his FB pics I'm not too sure he's even still in Canada.
You can keep an eye out for clearance items too. A few months ago I went in to Inglis and they had snapped up a bunch of Suomy suits on liquidation from Thibault and were blowing them out at $500ish. Can't recall exactly, but definitely a good deal.