In the US the government doesn't care about the tech sector, except perhaps military. You can't help feeling that the Canadian govt is actively trying to kill it.
Startups don't fund politicians and young people in tech don't vote.
So given a choice between rebuilding a burned down mill in a town where pine beetle have eaten all the trees or supporting tech startups in Vancouver - you have to look at where the votes come from.
So cancel R&D tax credits and use it to subsidise uneconomic fishing and forestry.
Oil and mining are probably OK - they make party contributions.
But even then the fed govt is killing us. An international mining company I worked with was planning on setting up it's R&D headquarters here - (mainly because it's easier than the US). It takes 5+ years to get an immigration visa for a mining engineer and their family then it takes 5+ years to get citizenship once they are here. You can bring in fruit pickers or rig hands on a "skilled workers" temp visa instantly of course.
In the end the company moved it to Australia, comparable cost and standard of living - but 1year visa process and 1 year to get citizenship.
If the startup has the same sort of money to throw around as an Enron or a BP. And if all the programmers live in a small town so that a significant proportion of the electorate there relies on the startup.
Startups don't fund politicians and young people in tech don't vote. So given a choice between rebuilding a burned down mill in a town where pine beetle have eaten all the trees or supporting tech startups in Vancouver - you have to look at where the votes come from.
So cancel R&D tax credits and use it to subsidise uneconomic fishing and forestry.
Oil and mining are probably OK - they make party contributions. But even then the fed govt is killing us. An international mining company I worked with was planning on setting up it's R&D headquarters here - (mainly because it's easier than the US). It takes 5+ years to get an immigration visa for a mining engineer and their family then it takes 5+ years to get citizenship once they are here. You can bring in fruit pickers or rig hands on a "skilled workers" temp visa instantly of course.
In the end the company moved it to Australia, comparable cost and standard of living - but 1year visa process and 1 year to get citizenship.