Toronto-Waterloo tech workforce expected to surpass Silicon Valley in 2023 (opens in new tab)

(therecord.com)

21 pointsravendug3y ago14 comments

14 comments

Maybe in numbers - not in any other way that actually matters. Canada is a trainwreck in motion.

How is it a train wreck? Are you alluding to some mis-informed view of its politics, or some aspect of its tech industry? Not clear from your comment, I’m not looking to start an argument.

throwntoday3y ago

I live in SF and I've met about a dozen engineers who were studying or studied at Waterloo. 100% of them had no desire to work in Canada. They all had the same thing to say, as much as they love Canada, salaries suck, and so do the taxes.

2 more replies

AnthonyCalandra3y ago

I'm not sure what their "train wreck" comment is alluding to either but as a recent graduate from a Waterloo university I've heard for years about "brain drain" and how most of my fellow graduates leave the area to pursue better careers down in the US or abroad because Canada's tech industry simply does not provide the pay, benefits, career ceiling, etc. as Silicon Valley, for example. This problem has been plaguing Canadian tech for quite a while you can probably find many articles about this on Google.

Slade13y ago

The parent comment seems like a bit of hyperbole, but Canada for a very long time hasn't prioritized tech industry. It's common to see salaries for tech jobs in Canada be much less than counterparts in US. I work with Canadians on my team and their opinion is that unless you're in lumber or drilling something from the ground, you might as well move to the US while of working age.

nwmcsween3y ago

~67% of tech graduates at large Canadian universities move to another country. As someone who has done technical hiring in Canada there is a absolute massive influx of immigrant tech workforce, nearly 10:1 on job applications.

europeanguy3y ago

Here's a wild guess... Is it possible that American companies are setting up in Canada just so they can hire globally? Because surely there aren't mostly Canadian tech companies, right?

rhaway847733y ago

Our company has built a Canadian office entirely of Indian and Chinese employees it didn’t want to lose but were sick of waiting for a green card they were never getting.

It will become our biggest North American employer of tech workers within a couple of years after having 0 employees as late as a couple of years before the pandemic.

It’s been a pretty straightforward loss of millions of dollars of income taxes to the US exchequer every year, never mind the loss of consumption dollars, sales taxes, etc.

teetertater3y ago

Definitely part of the reason. Canadian tech talent is about 50% cheaper compared to across the border, with roughly the same quality/training, language, time zones etc.

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