Compare the UK trucking to Canadian

You didn’t get a “bum deal” when you swapped your UK class one for a Canadian class 5, that’s just how it is, and I’m not sure what the Alberta air brake test is like but if you do the Manitoba one you can see why they won’t convert a UK licence over given we do zero testing on any of that in the UK, the best we get is being asked by the examiner where we would fill the washer fluid up or how to check the oil level.

Your UK experience does count with bison as I was technically employed by them before I even had my Canadian class one, it’s possible you just spoke to the wrong person who didn’t know the score. Still, if you have an IEC visa then you can work for anyone so I would not limit yourself to the companies who need to recruit from abroad, find a decent smaller company and as mentioned, go door to door as the best ones probably don’t need to advertise, they’ll have positions filled before its necessary to take out an advert.