well since no one else is chiming in, I'll give it a go.

My wife (primary applicant) and I are in the final stages of getting our skilled worker visa. Just had our med checks done, got out final police checks, and are about to send it all in. It's been 18 months for us, we applied under the old rules and so I think things are a bit diffent for a new SW applicant. From what i understand you need less suporting documents at first, then you'll be asked for more later.

specifics:

1. and 2. It seems perhaps you're looking at the checklist for applicants under the old rules in Buffalo. When we did our app. the CIC site said to follow the requirements of the specific consulate you'd be applying to, for us Buffalo. Do you even send the app to Buffalo under the "streamlined" system now in effect?

3. this one's easy as it's on a form right in front of me: $13,486 CAD for a family of two. For us they want to see it with the original app. and now with the finalization and then again when we "land" in Cananda. Not sure, but the current request for proof of fund might be because it's been over a year since the last one, if you make it through in less than that you might not need to show it again before heading up north.

4. Good luck getting contacted! In our experience they aren't too talkative. Our file was moved from Buffalo to Seattle at one point and we sent multiple e-mails trying to confirm it got there ok and eventually (one month or more?) got a reply that yes they had it, but no more details, then when we were considering moving to France for a year (wife is French) to wait for our visa we sent another message asking if that would effect our application. No answer for 5 months then suddenly about three weeks ago they called to ask if we were still wanting to move to Canada and let us know that after a bit of paperwork everything would go quickly from here.

So my advice would be to follow the instructions from CIC and if they point you to another checklist (check the dates on the form or checklist and compare them with when they implemented the new rules, Feb '08 I think) then follow that. Keep plugging away and don't get discouraged if you don't hear much from them.