Are you looking for training, or just hour building?
Boundary Bay (CZBB) is where I did all my training. I'm not a fan of most of the schools there these days, as they mainly cater to the foreign Asian student programs, and the solo local guy seems to get shafted a bit. At least that's what I felt, and had others agree.
Not too sure how long you're planning to stay here, but if you're just looking to build hours, maybe try to get a time share in the plane of you're choice. The hourly rates last time I checked (long time ago for a 172) were around $30-40per hour less than the schools, but you had to pay you're own gas. Plus the time share a/c tend to be in better shape and have nicer avionics. Then just sell your share when you're done (might be hard to do now) and save some cash.
Had I known about that, I would have done it that way and save all the extra $$$ spent on ****ty school planes.
But this is relatively old info, so I'm not sure what things are like now. Just a thought.
For the crossing the border thing, I do believe you need a visa to cross in a private aircraft (for non Canadian residents) . I don't remember exactly what the procedure was, but I remember hearing something about it when doing my US checkout.