You should be able to get a psych doctor without much hassle other than a wait for an initial visit. IIRC the wait wasn't terribly long. VGH has something called a Rapid Access Group; it's group therapy FOC and with a psychiatrist's referral you can participate in the next session. They meet once a week. While all that is going on there is a decent CBT group at VGH as well. There is a wait for that but the Rapid Access Group is the stop gap. Also look into the Centre for Concurrent Disorders, it doesn't take long to get into and you can be seen there once a week as well. Practically speaking, if your GP has any competence and the gumption to refer you, there is a decent spread of help available to you without any cost out of pocket. With these resources you could potentially be in a therapy session twice a week and you could see your p-doc at least once a month but that would be at their discretion/availability (with an open schedule or at least some flexibility 3-4 week intervals between visits shouldn't be an issue once you're in).

I don't know how it works in other cities in the GVRD though. What I've outlined only applies if you live in the City of Vancouver.

Someone also mentioned "Plan G". If you're low-income definitely go for that. It's a simple form endorsed by your GP and the processing time is short. It needs to be renewed annually so stay on top of that lest you get a bit of a shock when you're asked to pay for your meds because your coverage has expired.

It's fashionable to piss and moan about healthcare here. It's not the best by a country mile but with a little bit of digging, and asking the right questions in the right places (such as here; don't take medical advice too seriously on Reddit [obviously] but individual experiences from those in treatment can be useful) you can get a little traction and find the right trajectory for your own treatment by utilizing what is available. The sad thing is that it's not front and centre and the onus is very much on the patient to sort this all out with the odd exception of an outstanding GP/p-doc team who knows their way around the system and can guide you through it.

If you're a student I think that you're afforded some extended medical (at least it was when I was attending but that was well over a decade ago) so look into that as well. I know it sucks, really I know, but if you can pull yourself up just a little bit and look into this stuff (wow, it's hard not to sound patronizing with that statement but trust me it's with empathy that I say that) you'll find that you can get a reasonably adequate treatment regimen.

Finally, though you don't touch on this I'll mention that there are numerous NA and AA meetings in the city. Substance abuse is a common bedfellow of BP and if that's in the mix there's help available to you there.

Good luck, friend.