The 12 months thing is specific to your multi rating only as I recall.
For your night rating you must be current, and have completed at least 2hrs x-country.
Other ratings will have their own restrictions on them.
Are you planning on doing your MEIR before you go?
For me, I had a job the day my licence conversion was complete. But I came to Canada with 1800hrs and 500hrs on a Caravan. Went DEC on a van and F/O on a King Air.
BC is the best place to get your licence. You can just surrender your foreign licence and then get a BC one.
From there you can get a car, insurance and then you are good to go.
As for the bush training... Not 100% on those. Most of my few thousand hours now have been in the bush. What is taught on those courses and in reality is two different things.
A lot of operators will tell you different things. Some may want to see a bush course, others may want to see time on type, others couldn't care and as long as you have a good attitude and a pulse, will put you in their planes as a co-jo.
After doing your research on which companies you would like to really try to get on with, flick them an email or a phone call and see what they would prefer. Tally them up and see what is going to be best for you so you don't end up wasting cash.
All the stuff you need to study for your CPAER exam can basically be found online. I suggest getting hold of the syllabus and studying to that so you don't miss out on anything.
If you can't find what you need to study, flick me a PM and I will email you through all the material I used to study.
I also have one other tip for you that I would rather not say on here.