There is the remote chance that I may be facing the opportunity to come occupy visit BC as a long-term resident for work.  Possibly a few years (maybe somewhere between 12-36 months, hard to say).

The company is a small place in Vancouver itself, not sure exactly how close to downtown, but I'm assuming it's well in the city core.

I need some insight from folks who can give me an idea about what it would be like for a family of 3 (me, my wife, my 10 year old son) plus two huskies and two cats, to uproot and find a spot within feasible distance of the city.  Cost, schools, regulations, legal stuff, things I should watch out for or have in mind that only locals would know, anything like that.

Right now my wife and I are just mulling over how we'd make it work, so we're trying to gather info.  We don't have firm details beyond this.  Assume we'd be working with a single known income approximately equivalent to a US $60-65k per year.

Obviously the EBRs would be staying at a secure undisclosed location in the States.

No offense, but I don't think 65k will be enough for a family to cut it by Vancouver. An apartment rent will be about $1200 a month. You might have to pay US and Canadian income tax also, you will have to talk to an accountant about that.  The economist ranked Vancouver as the city with the highest cost of living in North America.