Canada needs to develop its own Silicon Valley fast

As the international contest for talent racks up to an incredible speed, Canada’s attempts to reverse the drain of top tech brains to the US are also gathering pace.T

echnology entrepreneurs able to found businesses which can replicate the GDP of small countries are in demand everywhere, and the long-awaited US immigration reform bill is sticking at its present stage. Canada is in a unique position to capitalise on Capitol Hill’s slowdown by attracting migrant tech staff whose US green card applications have also stalled.

Jason Kenney’s new Start-Up Visa was an innovative idea, backed up by his quirky Silicon Valley advertising board urging disenchanted foreign tech workers to head north across the border. ‘Pivot to Canada’ it stated, adding the magic words, Start Up Visa’ and ‘Low Taxes’, and it was followed by an enthusiastic address from Canada’s immigration minister.

The window for this innovative immigration drive is narrow, and the Silicon Valley giants are busy lobbying any House member who will stand and listen. They’re insisting that they be allowed to recruit and retain the best of the rest from China, Russia, the UK, India and just about anywhere else on the planet.

However, if and when US immigration reform finally happens, the Canadian package has a lot to recommend it. Tax breaks, incentives and venture capital plans by individual states to create a pool of investors willing to grow innovation should be a mould-breaking incentive for many would-be entrepreneurs in this rapidly-developing field.