With a new wave of patriotism to score their domestic technical sector for Canada, industry players say that homegron talent has opportunities to better attract and maintain and reduce the obstacles that are preventing companies from growing.
Kitchener’s CEO, Sheldon McCormic, ONTS-based Tech Hub Communitech said that he is seeing the “growing speed” behind the idea that Canada needs to “build, buy and build his own innovation” in areas such as Artificial Intelligence and Health Tech “.
Executing this, he said, protecting data and intellectual property, as well as will require to attract the talent required for “the anchor economic value here at home”.
Tech Space Spanish compensation, government support and challenges in attracting talent by those at the cost of life.
Benjamin Burgan, president of the Canadian Innovators Council, said that the US President was a spike in the US technical talent coming to the north during the first term of Donald Trump, but it does not currently appear physically.
Bargon said, “I think a part of the challenge is some of some new realities around the economy. I think it has not been clearly recruited as much as you have seen in the previous periods,” Bargon said.
“Donald Trump in the White House is not a strategy for our technical field. It can be a bit beneficial, but it is not a major proposer in terms of being able to attract meaningful talent.”
Mangal Discovery District CEO Grace Lee Reynolds, however, is looking at a slightly different trend in his technical universe.
He said, “It definitely feels that many people are talking about it. You hear someone’s real stories about that kind of change,” he said that about the technical talents going from America to Canada
“It will be able to see that it will be interesting for a long time. I think it is really important.”
Bargon said that re -starting Canada’s economic interests would allow the country to build and develop more successful technical firms, which in turn can attract more talents. In particular, he said that government procurement could be an important aspect.
“The reason for Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is for the reason that the US government has initially continued to work with companies in the region,” Bargon said.
Comparatively, Canada buys its own home solutions less, making it difficult for companies because they do not receive equal level procurement orders from the government, they said.
Ellen Kunda, founder and general partner of disintegration Ventures, said that government procurement could not be a universal solution.
“If you think it is not a growing economy with investors that are buying in this sector, then the purchase of the government is not going to solve the challenges of our technical sector. It is actually making it more dependent on the government,” he said.
Instead, she thinks that industry trade tax credit will greatly benefit that encourages people to take more risk.
Compared to Canadian tech firms, American companies have the “very easy” ability to raise capital and find buyers for their products, Bargon said.
Lee Reynolds also see access to capital as a hindrance to development, it is called one of the classic challenges in Canada.
“Capital, especially in that initial stage, is not enough enough here.”
Looking at the present moment, Lee Reynolds said that it is important to maintain talent in the country because people see opportunities in Canada “from the point of view of values.
“It should then work with the government, or ask it to work together as an ecosystem, so that the more initial stage capital money for the undertakings to grow can be unlocked,” he said.
As Canadian Tech firms work towards increasing their businesses, Tech-Centenary Think Tank Build Canada CEO Lucy Hargrevs says the challenge attracts top talents from all over the world and prevents homegron workers from leaving Canada.
“The first thing is to ensure that people we do not leave. It is great to bring new talents to the country, but we have incredible talent in Canada,” she said.
“We graduate the very talented and capable people of our universities every year, including programs that are world-famous in technology space in universities like Waterloo. So I think the first thing is how we stop those people?”
According to Hargraves, compensation is an important issue for technical workers, who can consider going to Canada or going to the rest.
“Salary is certainly a large part. If you look at salary in technical spaces and other industries in Canada, they are not generally competitive. There may be some exceptions, but generally speaking, is not competitive with salary in US dollars that are being introduced in Silicon Valley,” he said.
A 2023 study conducted by The Dice, a think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University, found that US tech employees earned an average salary of $ 122,604, while Canadian workers in the industry earned an average of $ 83,698 on an average.
When adjusting to the exchange rate and the cost of living, the study found that American technical workers earned about 46 percent more in salary.
“The cost of living in Canada is not very cheap,” Bargon said.
“And often what we hear from our member companies is that they are probably looking, let’s say, fare or a wonderful CTO or CFO. But openly, the cost of living is higher or at the same level as in other big courts.”
Bergon said Canadian companies may have to pay “too much” to offset the cost of issues looking to attract American talents and a weak dollar that has made a big and big difference “.
Overall, he said that some “super talented people” may choose to work in Canada based on the values ​​of the nation, but they want to see the government strengthening the opportunities for domestic technical firms to succeed.
This report of Canadian Press was first published on 11 July 2025.
Daniel Johnson, Canadian Press
