but there is an overwhelmingly larger number of articles and people saying toronto is the better place for startups and i can't help but feel that i might find better talent in UofT vs UBC.
is cost of housing in vancouver really sky high? and i do like the outdoors - i enjoying skiing and intend to do that perhaps once a month or so.
You're concerned about the weather - Vancouver's the clear winner here. You can finish your degree in twenty months - again, Vancouver's the clear winner. Finally, that twenty-month UBC program's got extra resources to get people who aren't programmers and are switching careers up to speed - it's designed for your situation, while Toronto's ordinary CS program is just going to throw you in with everyone else.
But if you're planning to go somewhere else (U.S. etc.), go UofT by all means, nobody outside of Canada knows where the heck is UBC. Vancouver is a beautiful place, definitely wins in terms of landscape, but the tech job pool is also super small, you will find out that pretty much everyone has worked at the same couple of places.