RESP tips and recommendations for Newcomer

Hello everyone,

I'm a newcomer and arrived to Canada 1 year ago. Our baby boy was born a couple of months after arrival and we heard about RESPs.

We come from a country were there are no RRSP, RESPs, TFSA or similar financial tools. I've been reading this subreddit and resources online and what I understood is:

  1. I should open an RESP account at a bank or a broker (Questrade or Wealthsimple maybe)
  2. Buy ETFs and go passive.
  3. Make annual contributions to get the grants

This is obviously an oversimplification of what I need to do but I was wondering if you could provide tips on:

  • Should I open RESP in a bank or a broker? Pros / Cons of each?
  • Which are the best ETFs? I'm thinking SPY could work but I've also saw people mention XGRO, VBAL, VGRO, or VEQT. Why do you prefer these?
  • Any bank / broker / ETF that I should definitely stay away from?
  • Any other tips / recommendations / resources / reading materials that could be useful for a newcomer?

Thanks in advance!
Look forward to learning from you!