I have recently moved from Chicago, IL to Ottawa, ON. I am trying to determine what the equivalent of my former salary would be here. The only link I found on the web was expensive software for HR professionals. I am looking for free info.
Please do not respond with links to general sites about city rankings — Ottawa is a smaller city and is not listed. What I would like is a ratio that will compare salaries and allow me to adjust for the currency exchange. Also, please don’t post nonsense answers, I don’t have time to read garbage.

Price a typical basket of goods. Include, rent, food, entertainment and maybe a durable good like a car. Then compare how much it costs and how much of your old salary it would have taken to obtain it. Then compare what you’ll need in the new city. Would require a little research but that’s how I’ll do it.
If you are converting using exchange rate you need to know not just where but when. In 2000 using purchasing price parity the Canadian dollar was 20% undervalued and the last year it was overvalued when the dollar fell in value. But now the dollar is up again.
Except of the price of housing the cost should be similar to Montreal.