I would love the M&P 15 as a great entry level AR15 except...... No dust cover and forward assist? I know you don't "need" those. My DPMS LR308 doesn't have those either. But that's a target rifle. This isn't.
The upper/lower and regular parts will be fine. The barrel while not the M4 profile does have a couple of advantages. First its a 1:8 twist which is nice for accuracy (most common precision AR barrel twist in 223/5.56). Also it has the Thompson Centre 5R rifling. Which may help accuracy and cleaning. It's not Chrome lined but has a melonite coating which supposibly works well. So again this might help with accuracy. But it's not free floated. Which doesn't help.
I want to like this AR15 rifle. I really do. I do like S&W, I love AR15 rifles and I even like some of the compromises they made. But.. there are a few too many compromises. When you look closer it's not as good a deal as originally thought. I'd wait and spend a bit more. Get exactly what you want. It'll be cheaper in a package than trying to piece it together or turn a bare bones AR into what it should have been to start with.
If going for a S&W, I'd go up a model or two. Here's the T model from irunguns.ca. $1172 US.
http://www.irunguns.ca/store/rifles-for-sale-canada?product_id=147
Personally I would look at a rifle like this for an entry AR15. Palmetto State armory.
It's $850 US. It appears to be a good basic AR15 rifle. I like that the barrel is hammer forged and 1:7 twist. Competitors are Windham, Core15 etc.
http://www.irunguns.ca/store/rifles-for-sale-canada?product_id=190