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The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

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Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#241

Post by cvinson »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #233
cvinson wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very. We post multiple times a day on social media, create videos, do webinars, and long-form eBooks. Most of our staff are in the US, and don't speak french. Of our ~25,000 customers, 10 are in Quebec. As you can imagine, hiring a full time french speaker just doesn't make sense. So, we have to "fire" our Quebec customers and block the province via IP. This is what dozens of startups (and big web companies) are doin…

> Most of our staff are in the US, and don't speak french. > As you can imagine, hiring a full time french speaker just doesn't make sense. So how are you based in Montreal, and why? Why not relocate to the US, or English-speaking Canada?

I live here, and started the company here. It is massively difficult to move the company without incurring the ire of the tax authorities. Moving was my first response to this situation, but lawyers and accountants have advised against it.

Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#242

Post by Raphmedia »

quicknir wrote: post #240
Raphmedia wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in tech in Montreal. People speak in english. You can speak english all day if you want. My clients speak in english. We speak in english. We create websites that are 100% english for clients who are based in the USA. What isn't allowed it having a workplace where the local (who can't speak english) have no chance of being hired because of the language. That is also why the employer must provide all workplace…

No that's not all it is, and the person who does not understand the law is you. Quebec language laws require for instance that commercial signs not only have French, but that French be predominant. Why does a sign having big print in English and small print in French, prevent a native French speaker from working there? Also, realistically if you hire many programmers who only speak English, it's simply not realistic…

> Quebec language laws require for instance that commercial signs not only have French, but that French be predominant.

No. If that was true, Best Buy would have big billboards that say "Meilleur Achat". "Canadian Tire" would be "Pneus Canadiens". They don't. The law don't ask for it.

> Also, realistically if you hire many programmers who only speak English, it's simply not realistic to hire a programmer who speaks French exclusively because he can't communicate with the team.

That's the entire point of the law. It's the very reason it's there. To prevent business from hiring an all english staff which would prevent local people from working there.

Edit: Some of it may not make sense to you because we are working in the tech industry. The abuses those laws are there to protect against happen mostly to minimum wage workers in the industrial sector. Some people could get hurt if the machines are not labelled correctly. I admit that stickers on the photocopying machine is a joke but it could be life and death when we are talking about a big industrial machines filled with saws.

Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#243

Post by aianus »

kohanz wrote: post #225
aianus wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this increases demand for condos, thus raising the price Condos are not supply-constrained. You can tear down like 6 detached houses and build 240 condos in that space. In Toronto they're making over 100,000 new units a year: http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages...

Toronto and Vancouver is an apples and oranges comparison when it comes to having space/land to build new structures.

Why's that? They're still building them in the downtown core, which is already way more developed than Vancouver's. There's probably some stupid NIMBY 'I need to keep my mountain views' stuff going on if they can't do the same in Vancouver.

Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#244

Post by nayuki »

serge2k wrote: post #184
miguelrochefort wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is accurate. The company I work for had to put French stickers on every key of every keyboard. They had to put stickers on the microwave oven as well...

I hate Canadian bilingual keyboards so much.

I hate how the left shift key is split, and how the backslash moves to the enter position.

Despite being in Canada, I only buy laptops with US keyboards.

Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#245

Post by frandroid »

raverbashing wrote: post #151
celerystock wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the software industry in Montreal has decided that developers are not valuable. Salaries are hilariously low compared to american counterparts.

They also seem prejudiced to foreign labour that is not French or American

Funny story: I have friends from Québec City (unilingual city) who work in Montréal who complain of always having to work in English, and I have former anglo-Montréaler friends living in Toronto because "it was impossible to find a job in Montréal as a non-native French speaker".

Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#246

Post by frandroid »

serge2k wrote: post #184
miguelrochefort wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is accurate. The company I work for had to put French stickers on every key of every keyboard. They had to put stickers on the microwave oven as well...

I hate Canadian bilingual keyboards so much.

Wait, you actually look at the keys? You can use whatever keyboard but keep it mapped out to your favourite layout. I personally use a Canadian bilingual layout but haven't owned such a keyboard in quite a while, since work doesn't look fondly in buying a MacBook Pro with a layout that a future inheritor would bristle at...

Now if you mean that you really hate the layout, it's really anti-programming, and sometimes I wonder why I stick to it. :) It's so easy to use a layout switching keyboard shortcut...

Re: The Canadian Housing Boom Fueled by China’s Billionaires

#247

Post by jonesalice34 »

Canada is the fifth most popular country with Chinese property investors who is interested in purchasing condos for their children near universities. As a result, single-detached homes move further into luxury budget territory leaving first-time buyers with funds enough for a condo. Source https://tranio.com/canada,new_zealand,australia,united-kingd...
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