Yes, that's also true -- if he comes earlier under dual intent he will have to do his actual landing either by crossing the border to the US and returning or he has to make an appointment to do it at some office in Etobicoke (fellow Torontonian here
), which can take a couple weeks to get and you don't have much choice about date/time. If he's going to just wait to get COPR before he enters the country, though, he'll just do it at the airport. (I'd imagine his process will be quite quick from here, though, so probably easiest to just do at the airport!)