Hey man, I moved to Alberta about 4 and a half years ago and was able to swap my uk licence for a Canadian operators license. Unfortunately they only give me a class 5 which is for a car and had to redo my class 1 as well as take an air brake course before that.
I would imagine the same would be said for BC.
The air brake course is only a day course or a 2 day course if you do it in the evening and can be done at the local college and costs around $250 to $300 Canadian bit is easy to do and you can go straight for your class 1 too which is nice, unlike England where you have to do class 2 first.
Alberta now has a MELT (mandatory entry level training) program that’s I think 113 hours of tuition which you have to complete to get your commercial vehicle license which I think can cost anything up to $10,000 and up to $5,000 for a bus but I would imagine can be reclaimed on the following years tax return, I was lucky enough to get my class 1 just before they brought it all in but you should look for yourself and I don’t think BC has implemented the MELT program as of yet so it would just be a case of do the computer and practical tests and air brakes.
As for finding a job, if you have at least a couple of years behind you over in England then you should at least have half a chance when you get here, however you are planning to do that.
easiest way is to look on the internet and search for the different companies local to where you will be or you can always ask around on here too.
Hope this helps buddy!