Maddeaux | Mark Carney hopes to lure tech workers to Canada. One problem: Canada is already struggling to keep and attract talent

Reminder not so easy:

Domestic STEM talent is fleeing, too. A 2023 study of STEM graduates from the classes of 2015 and 2016 at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and University of British Columbia found two-thirds of them working in the U.S. Similarly, a 2020 survey of graduating STEM students at the University of Waterloo found 84 per cent of the class planned to work in the U.S., driven primarily by significantly higher compensation. Nevermind attracting the best and brightest; we should be more worried about the U.S. absorbing our best and brightest.

In 2023, think tank The Dais clocked the average American tech salary to be about 46 per cent higher than the average Canadian tech salary with exchange rate and cost of living taken into account.

Top talent is smart enough to run a simple equation: wages are too low and living costs are too high. In particular, housing costs are outrageously divorced from incomes. Canada’s tech hubs in particular have some of the most distorted price-to-income ratios in the world….

Source: Opinion | Mark Carney hopes to lure tech workers to Canada. One problem: Canada is already struggling to keep and attract talent