Scotia McLeod has offered to keep the money so they can make money off you. And once they invest it, it will cost you, in money and time, to get it anywhere else. (Plus natural human inertia will work against you actually doing that).
If you need time to get up to speed, open a tangerine savings account and park your money there, earning ~2% interest as a new Client with no fees (PM me or anyone for a referral code if you want).
But you could also just get up to speed before you get the money relatively easily. A couple things... RRSP and TFSA are types of accounts to put your money in. ETFs, mutual funds, stocks etc are things to invest your money in (once inside an investment account). I recommend Questrade for cheap and easy DIY investing, and second reading Canada Couch Potato for super simple advice on picking some index funds.