A basic position to set up equities is 1/3 each Canada, US and international. You can do approximately that with 1/3 VCN and 2/3 VXC. Or the comparable ETFs from iShares are XIC and XAW. It's also the allocation of Tangering's Equity growth fund. This overweights Canada relative to its global market cap, but there are reasons to do it including less foreign currency exposure and lower taxation on Canadian dividends (in non-registered accounts).
Are you sure you want 100% equities? That will most probably grow faster than a portfolio with some bond exposure, but it will be more volatile. In 2008 it would have dropped about 30%. In the 2000 dotcom crash it would have dropped about the same amount, except the recovery took longer and the agony was drawn out over 3 years. All equity portfolios can be good for the right investor, but not if you get spooked in a bear market and sell at the wrong time.
I also think ETFs can be cost effective at $20k. I remember the $50k threshold from years ago when a lot of online brokers charged $30 per trade unless you had $50k in your account, plus ETF MERs have dropped significantly while mutual fund MERs have not. Tangerine's 1.07% MER will add up to $214/yr. VCN + VXC in the ratio I suggested above has a blended MER of 0.184, which results in savings of about $175/yr vs Tangerine. Many brokers now have a $15k minimum to waive maintenance fees, and trades for a basic index portfolio would not cost near $175/yr.
Having said that, time is money, and ETFs have some drawbacks and complexity as others have noted, so index mutual funds are not a bad choice. Here is a good comparison:
http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Index_fund#Comparison_of_index_mutual_funds_and_ETFsOne issue with ETFs is how to make monthly contributions without incurring trading fees. One way as someone else noted is to use Questrade for free ETF purchases. I make monthly purchases of a low-fee balanced fund (in my case TD Balanced Index Fund TDB965) then once a year or so sell the MF and purchase ETFs while rebalancing.
www.Finiki.org is a Canading investing site that has some good pages:
http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Portfolio_design_and_constructionhttp://www.finiki.org/wiki/Simple_index_portfolios#Three_fund_portfoliosThere are a lot of different investing choices, but among the most important things are low cost and a consistent approach to staying invested through good and bad markets. Sounds like you are headed in the right direction.