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This will help Canadian startups a lot.
by xutopia 9y ago
This will help Canadian startups a lot.
- EduardoBautista 9y agoEven before this rule, they weren’t exactly competitive with the US. I don’t see how this time will be any different.
- drpgq 9y agoYeah this whole Trump thing is good for the Canadian tech sector is something that sounds plausible, but I don't think it changes much. Canada already has a lot of immigration of tech workers. Although to be fair I had never heard of that Soti company until yesterday on Hacker News, so who knows.
- popopobobobo 9y agoBut I don't think anyone is willing to go to Canada considering the huge salary gap. I got Canadian developer friends who is making half of what I am making in US by sheer number besides the currency exchange rate.
- timtosi 9y agoI don't know where you live in the USA so I cannot really judge but I think you should also take in consideration the cost of life in USA and Canada. It's not only about how much you make but about how much you spend.
- j2bax 9y agoIs the cost of living around most software companies in Canada so much less than the US?
- timtosi 9y agoAbout what I heard on the housing price topic from both sides, yes. EDIT: California VS Montreal
- squeaky-clean 9y agoOn the flipside, Vancouver is apparently more expensive than anywhere in the US for housing and median salary is much lower than somewhere like New York City.
- EduardoBautista 9y agoMoving just a few hours south to Seattle will give you a huge increase in salary and lower cost of living.
- praneshp 9y agoMontreal is a big city, so I concede you have a (partial?) point. I have heard horror stories about cost of living in Vancouver here on HN, as well as from people I met in real life.
- kareemm 9y agoCalifornia vs Montreal is cherry picking the data. You could easily say Chicago (cheap) vs Vancouver (not cheap). The major economic tech centres in Canada are Toronto and less so, Vancouver. Montreal and Ottawa (because that's where Shopify is HQ'd) are the next biggest. Toronto and Vancouver are hugely unaffordable when it comes to housing; Montreal and Ottawa are much more affordable.
- projectramo 9y agoIn general Canada "costs" more: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Canada/United-States/Cost-of-living http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Canada/Unit... However, this does not adjust for free healthcare and education. On the other hand, tech cost of living is skewed by SF and Vancouver. SF is the #1 tech city in the US whereas Vancouver may be #2 in Canada, but the US is a larger country so SF may "dilute" more. Without stats, this is just guesswork.
- colmvp 9y agoI feel like if you are at the top of your game, and can make it at any of the major tech companies or can start your own startup without trouble at finding funding, the U.S. is way better. Most of my friends, including myself, earned 1.5-3x what we'd earn even in a major city as Toronto. And if you happen to join a great tech company, chances are the health insurance you'll get is superior to the general public healthcare system in Canada.
- projectramo 9y agoThis is an entrepreneur visa, not a developer visa. The entrepreneur who founds a company will benefit from lower developer costs.
- justinhj 9y agoThere are other reasons than money one might live in Canada. It's a country with different values than those of the US. Welcoming to immigrants, relatively safer in terms of violent crime and universal healthcare are high on the list.
- Shorel 9y agoPeople from South America would. Grass only needs to be greener, not the greenest.
- xutopia 9y agoI'm not sure the gap is that big when you factor in children and housing. I have two kids. I get offers between 100k/160k CAD in Montreal. Daycare costs me about 800$ per month for each children and I get kick backs from the governement to bring that down to roughly 189$CAD/month. In San Francisco the average is 1900$USD per child. Then factor in I live in a 265K CAD house, 40 minutes bus ride to city center. I have 3 bedrooms, one office, a huge kitchen, a nice patio, garden etc... In San Francisco the median house price is 1,194,300$ USD. I could be making 180kUSD and I wouldn't be saving any more money at the end of every month with housing and daycare alone. Also... I might pay a good deal of taxes but I have great healthcare.
- chrshawkes 9y agoThe USA is not defined by Silicon Valley. I make 120k in Richmond, Virginia and another 30k online. Your figures are nowhere near accurate for most American cities.
- j45 9y agoCanada will benefit from this, just remains to be seen how much. I know a startup that accepted funding from the valley and stayed in Canada. Main reasonings: USD goes much further in CAD (longer runway), developers cost less, lower cost of living (most places), and the massive amount of government grants (free money) to subsidize startups in R&D, etc. Federal government just put aside something ridiculous like $900 million for innovation funding. Last, but not least, Canadian citizenship is a real possibility for someone who moves to Canada under a visa program.
- chrshawkes 9y agoBenefit from a policy scrapped which never went into effect in the first place. I'm not holding my breath.
- jrs95 9y agoMaybe it will save BlackBerry! /s