Regarding driver's licenses, since I had to deal with mine...
There is no correlation between the immigration stuff and having a driver's licence in Canada. For some countries you can simply exchange your current one for a Canadian license. Right at first you can are allowed to drive for, if I remember correctly, the first three months of your stay - then you need to have a local license.
Coming from Greece I couldn't simply exchange it. So normally I'd need to go through the steps anyone has to, i.e. get the G1, wait a year, get the G2, etc. However since I had 17 years of experience driving, I got to have my embassy provide me with an official statement saying I'm a driver in good standing. That let me take the written test (which gives you a G1, meaning you can't be on a 4xx highway or drive without another driver in the car), then almost immediately take the road test.
Passing it gives you a full G license.
The whole thing cost something like... $140 or so, including the written and road test. If anyone has questions please feel free to ask.