china made m14 clones as far back as the 60's I think......
but the majority of production was done in the early 90's, including the receivers of rifles sold today.
those forgings were made under lower material, labour and energy costs than we have in china today...... so I would think hoping for a Chinese garand for under a 1000 would not be realistsic. I also don't see the Canadian market being an effective driver to entice the Chinese to take up the task.
now a company like wayne machine might be able to do it, they are already tooled up for making much of the M1A rifle parts, but again, there wouldn't be any reason to expect the rifle produced to not cost well over a grand.
if it was a good idea..... some American company would have been on it much as they have done for the m14/m1a ie SEI, LRB, 7.62firearms, SAI,JRA ect