This is a good move, though I'm not sure
how much good it will actually do.
Canada's software engineering industry has a massive brain drain problem, bigger than the mainstream media knows, and bigger than even many tech insiders know. Of the people I graduated university with the people who are still in Canada are the minority, a notion that still boggles the mind.
The bulk are in the US, and almost everyone I know who works on "startupy" things are in the US. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of people I know, still in Canada, working on startupy tech. The vast majority of my peers who remain in Canada are working in BigEnterprise, not exactly a talent pool well fit to encourage startups.
Without making meaningful strides at reversing the brain drain, I feel like any policy changes are just bandaids over a gaping wound. Can there be a startup revolution when the bulk of your engineering talent is busy diving across the border?
Canada's software engineering industry has a massive brain drain problem, bigger than the mainstream media knows, and bigger than even many tech insiders know. Of the people I graduated university with the people who are still in Canada are the minority, a notion that still boggles the mind.
The bulk are in the US, and almost everyone I know who works on "startupy" things are in the US. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of people I know, still in Canada, working on startupy tech. The vast majority of my peers who remain in Canada are working in BigEnterprise, not exactly a talent pool well fit to encourage startups.
Without making meaningful strides at reversing the brain drain, I feel like any policy changes are just bandaids over a gaping wound. Can there be a startup revolution when the bulk of your engineering talent is busy diving across the border?