Investing and saving are NOT the same. If you are saving for a house, that should not be done in the market at all - not in bonds, not in stocks. It should be in a high-interest savings account (HISA).
You should be able to Transfer In Kind from your current providers to somewhere that doesn't charge ridiculous management fees. My default suggestion is Questrade; they will, I believe, pay one set of transfer-out fees. Anywhere else is better, though - if you don't want the complexity of an actual brokerage, TD eSeries is the second option - there, you can auto-invest into mutual funds with 0.35% MER or so.
2%+ MERs absolutely wreck your investment growth. If it is a case of a 3% fee vs keeping in at 2% MER for two more years, pay the 3%. If it's only 1 year, keep it in but move ASAP. It may be worth the extra percent to just get it done.
I'd recommend a review of Canadian Couch Potato. But the basic tenets are that the high MER shit wrecks your return (you only make the company selling the investment wealthy, for no risk to them), and to be passive - don't be your own worst enemy by switching your asset allocation all the time. It, almost, doesn't matter what the AA is - 20% Canada, 40% US, 20% rest of world, 20% bonds is completely arbitrary but will do fine.
I would advise avoiding investing in real estate until you are absolutely sure that you want to, know what you are getting into, and have MUCH more money invested elsewhere. IE, invest $100k in rentals after getting $300k+ in the stock market. One house is illiquid, not diversified, and very high risk. Ten houses in different cities much less so.