I am of a larger size and I don't break spokes, my key is high quality components built by someone who has built or builds a lot of wheels. I think at this point all of my wheels are 32h and many are laced with Sapim Strong or Force Spokes and Brass Secure Lock Nipples on good well known rims (Velocity and H+Son as well as some WTB rims) with quality hubs (White Industries, Phil Wood, Paul) . I have a wheelset that is using Phil Wood Spokes and Nipples but the bike is from Phil Wood back in 1994 so it was only appropriate. I don't know the conversion rate for loonies but I cannot imagine it is worth twice a much or something so my guess is the wheel you have was not hand built or it was using the cheapest parts with little to no labor charge. Usually a wheel at the price is going to be machine built from a distributor and some of those wheels can be mediocre or even marginally good but when you are talking heavier riders or people who put a lot of stress on wheels they don't tend to hold up as well.

If you are looking for something durable use a quality hub something with a steel or titanium freehub (assuming a cassette wheel) and ideally with easily serviceable bearings in 32 or 36h with high flanges if possible. Stick with good strong spokes and nipples like the ones mentioned above or DT Swiss Apline III and a good rim that can handle heavier duty spokes and good high tension. One big thing to remember is the system has to be able to work together so you can drill a lightweight aluminum rim for 36h but it probably won't handle big thick spokes well and lightweight hubs are the same deal.

If I were building a really bombproof rim brake wheel I would probably do a 36h White Industries MI5 hub laced to a Velocity NoBS rim (or Atlas if I wanted it to look prettier and lose a little strength) with Sapim Strong spokes and brass Secure Lock Nipples laced 3X. For disc I would do the same but WI CLD hubs. If I wanted something even stronger I might switch everything to 40h which I can get with all those components minus the CLD disc hubs. Also I would have them made by someone like Bill Mould or Peter J. White or another long time wheel builder who knows their stuff. I don't know who is up in Canadia on the wheel building side but I am sure someone has some good skills and has been doing it a while or has that as their main focus.

A handbuilt wheel by a competent wheel builder should last a long long long time without issue and if there is an issue that wheel builder should stand behind their product. The same cannot really be said for a machine that is cranking out tons of wheels a day and probably those wheels aren't checked by a human. I know most shops sadly don't always check over the wheels before they go out. Not a jab against shops at all because that takes time and most of these wheels are decent enough and have few problems but it would be nice if we had the time.