Something something "this is relevant to my interests".
I tell people that if they want to get a job in the high-tech sector in in Vancouver, a computer science degree will help you avoid a lot of headaches. MOOCs (like Codeacademy), bootcamps (like Lighthouse Labs) and the CST diploma at BCIT are popular ways to get a foot into Vancouver's high-tech industry. But because such pathways require less time or effort (BCIT is intense, but the diploma is only 2 years long), the labour pool of workers with non-degree skills is much larger than the labour pool of workers with a compsci degree, or an EE/CE degree, or really any 4 year university degree (e.g. math, statistics, physics, even political science) with additional study of computer science and programming.
Another problem I have with BCIT, even if you get the BTech degree on top of the CST diploma, is that a strong foundation in theoretical computer science will actually make you a more skilled and marketable software developer, web developer, etc. Java versions come and go, but the core principles of object-oriented programming are timeless, as are the basic abstract data types (stacks, trees, lists, dictionaries) and strategies for the analysis of algorithms. And I don't know about other people, but I felt that I really needed the structure of a university course, and the help offered by TAs, the instructor, etc. to really get a grip on OOP and discrete mathematics, which helped me not be as lost in the second year data structures course I am currently taking.
A good foundation in computer science makes you a more skilled and marketable developer. And that foundation is easier, I think, to get from a compsci degree than from bootcamps or Codeacademy. It's not impossible, but you're stuck in the echo chamber of your own mind and your avenues to get help are more limited. Plus, since there are no deadlines, you'll end up putting everything off (I know I do that).
With respect to Vancouver, there are some factors that exacerbate the labour situation:
Canada's population is small (35 million), which means the country doesn't have much manpower and purchasing power compared to the US.
Vancouver itself has a small population as well. Metro's population is about 2.5 million, comparable to the metro areas of Sacramento, Charlotte, San Antonio and Cleveland. Incidentally, according to Payscale, the median salary for an entry-level software developer is $76,000, but that's mostly because of America's stronger purchasing power and loonie weakening only recently.
The primary core industries in Vancouver are resource extaction (this is a port city) and real estate. Historically, capital has been invested in the resource sector. In Seattle, SF and Austin, high-tech is the core industry. Just as economic activity in the resource sector fuels growth of supporting industries in Vancouver, like finance and law and engineering, it's high-tech that fuels economic growth in those US cities. And high-tech begets more high-tech, which begets more high-tech...
Venture capitalists in Canada have traditionally been very conservative, and Vancouver was never a VC hub. So while starting a business in Canada means you avoid some of the pitfalls of starting a business in the US (health insurance), it's hard to get funding. A weak loonie has mitigated this somewhat, and anecdotally on Reddit, I've heard VC firms in Menlo Park and NYC are willing to fund ventures headquartered out of Vancouver. Hopefully Markus Frind and Ryan Holmes and the new Maple Syrup Mafia will improve Canada's VC landscape and high-tech incubation ecosystem, but I doubt it.
Vancouver attracts a different kind of person. The laid back lifestyle (or at least the impression of one), moderate climate, quick access to outdoor adventure, and efficient transit system make Vancouver a desirable place to live, especially if you've endured winters in Toronto or Montreal or Boston (or summers), traffic in Seattle or Austin, and the disaster that is MUNI in San Francisco. BC basically has no political dysfunction compared to other jurisdictions in NA where tech hubs are located (Ontario, Quebec, Washington, California, Texas), which may. The saying is, "I came to Vancouver for the lifestyle. If I wanted to make money, I'd move to [Seattle/SF/Austin/Denver] and suffer with the [traffic/drought/summers/sprawl]." Young tech-savvy people frequently dream of escaping the frozen wastelands of the Prairies and Ontario/Quebec, and many of them not only do, but are willing to take pay cuts to live here. The non-existent labour protections in BC for high-tech workers make Vancouver the perfect place to exploit them.
A compsci degree cuts out much of this headache, so long as you apply yourself, do co-op, etc. This is a job posting for an SDE I position at Amazon Vancouver. This is one for a Front-End Engineer position at Mobify. And this is one for a Data Scientist position at Grouplend. These kinds of positions are more advanced and specialized than entry-level webdev jobs like OP mentioned, and the market demand for them is high thanks to globalization and the e-Commerce revolution. Similar positions in Vancouver pay a base salary of around $75-80,000 to qualified applicants, and up to $85,000 for a particularly good applicant. If you were to take two random people, with one who learned from MOOC/self-teaching/BCIT diploma, and another who got a compsci degree from UBC/SFU/UVic/UCalgary/etc., which do you think would be more likely to have the skills and knowledge to be successful in that position, all things being equal (programming experience, personal projects, has done networking, contributed to in FOSS projects, familiar with Git)?
Think about it.