As a Toronto native, who now lives in Silicon Valley (part of the brain drain from Waterloo), there is a reason why everyone leaves Toronto/Canada - the salaries are simply laughable when compared to the bay area. The only reason you would stay in Toronto for a job in tech is if you wanted to stay close to family, or your girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse. Or, you just hate money and being at the center of the tech industr…
My wife and I really want to move to Toronto one day. I interviewed at a tech startup and got an offer for ~$60k CAD plus some equity. It was a good amount of equity, and they were pretty small. Their product and mission was really awesome, and I think I would have had a good time working there. But I wasn't going to move for that kind of money. That's 2.5 times less than an "entry-level" tech salary in SF ($120k USD…
I feel, there is more hype in Vancouver tech scene, with more emphasis on "trendiness bonus"
Local job boards periodically explode with generic "enter the buzzword" specialist/developer jobs. More VC funding spilling over the border. More "1 month startups." Even these days, I heard, generic facebook clones still manage to somehow secure multimegabuck funding.