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Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

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Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#201

Post by yellowait44 »

yellowait44 wrote: post #133
smnrchrds wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you are technically correct. If you earn more than approximately 800k in Quebec, you would pay about 50% of your income in taxes. But how many people earn remotely that much? Is this really a concern for us mere mortals?

Average tax of 50% is pretty hard to hit you are right but I was more pointing at marginal tax rate which is what most people refer to when they say Canadian income tax are high. Just check the CRA tax brackets and add in the Revenu Quebec tax bracket for instance.

For those who want to verify https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ... and add Quebec tax bracket: https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/citizens/your-situation/new-r...

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#202

Post by amscanne »

mav3rick wrote: post #92
bitL wrote: post #38

Microsoft and Amazon used to park people that didn't get H1B in Vancouver. Wasn't that the same as what Google is doing now?

No Google has proper engineering in Toronto / Waterloo.

Not really Toronto (sales and business primarily) but there’s engineering in Montreal also.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#203

Post by criddell »

goodcanadian wrote: post #172
sandworm101 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> nearly identical culture to the United States. Lol. Maybe a similar culture to some parts of California or Washington, and that is a stretch, but Vancouver is very very different than "the United States". Live in both for a while and all the little difference (the guns, health care, government, police, civil-military relations, the environment, land use, education etc) add up to markedly different approaches to li…

I, too, would accept "similar culture," but it is far from "nearly identical." I say this as a Canadian who lived in the United States for several years.

It's very, very similar north-south. Vancouver has more in common with Seattle than Halifax.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#204

Post by [deleted] »

geebee wrote: post #195
fnbr wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's high, but not crazy high. A Staff Engineer at a FAANG can make ~$500k. See: https://www.levels.fyi/# (L6 at Google, for instance.) I know engineers in Canada who are making similar amounts. There's not a lot but it's not nonexistent.

Potential ambiguity here. Yes, “staff” engineers at google earn very high salaries, but people unfamiliar with titles might think this term means a competent but otherwise unremarkable member of the technical staff. At google a Staff engineer is a title notably higher than senior swe, and many talented people will not reach this title or pay grade.

[deleted]

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#205

Post by triceratops »

andrewzah wrote: post #166
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality of life is subjective, and there are no cities that offer as much financial and career opportunity to the average senior software developer as SV does right now. Yes, cost of living is high, but you’ll still come out far ahead the average senior software dev living in some midwestern city. There are exceptions / edge cases, but they’re just that.

> you’ll still come out far ahead the average senior software dev living in some midwestern city Come out far ahead how? I'm already pulling close to 6 figures, and I expect to reach $120-130k in a relatively short time period. Do I -need- to move to SV and live in much shittier conditions and have an insane cost of living just to earn some more money? ... I feel that remote work makes this an outdated concept (my co…

> Come out far ahead how?

Check out levels.fyi. Moving to the Bay Area to work at a random startup makes little sense, but moving to one of the BigCos can be very financially rewarding.

> I'm almost 24 and if I continue to manage my finances correctly, I should have my own spacious home by 25

Check out this comment someone made complaining how high the CoL is in the Bay Area, even for someone making $300k. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22228756 Their analysis is flawed and overstates expenses, but even then this hypothetical tech employee saves > $110k/year (including a 401k and match). That's enough to put a down payment on a house in SC every year. If you're investing minded, you could own an apartment building in about 10 years and never have to worry about money again.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#206

Post by amscanne »

Canada wrote: post #160
jariel wrote: post #107

As a Candian, it seems to me so very pathetically and predictably Canadian to literally herald the surrender of your own industries to foreign takeover. Canada is (often) to tech what Mexico is to cars. Mexican 'assembly' of cars is fine and good, but they don't exactly move up the value chain from there. Canada produces a lot of decent tech people, who will work for 2/3 the wages, unfortunately, this doesn't map to…

I agree with everything you said. Especially your point about the blindness to it all. People spin these narratives like "Silicon Valley North" and "Hollywood North" when reality it's all branch offices. There is a lack of investment capital available to companies based in Canada. Programs like IRAP and SR&ED don't help in any meaningful way. Canada is a great country, but we've been underperforming for a while now a…

Another Canadian in strong agreement chiming in.

I think IRAP and SRED are okay, they just led to government picking winners (IRAP) and an awful ecosystem of vendors and abuse (SRED).

I’m of the opinion that Canada should take that money and do what Israel did with Yozma. Match the creation of VC funds with government capital and generous exit terms (e.g. government matches with 50% capital, is totally silent partner and can be bought out at any time with a 30% premium). I bet big VCs would jump at the opportunity and everyone would win (Israel actually saw a return in the end).

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#207

Post by cunac »

abtinf wrote: post #22

Part of the reason for this is that the Trump administration has made it very hard for Canadians working for tech companies to visit the US on business. I have friends who used to frequently and freely travel between the two countries for meetings, and now they all have corporate policies forbidding it. As is always the case with protectionist policies, the country imposing them experiences a net loss.

I would say this is totally false. I am working for Canadian office of US company and travel to the US on average once a month for meetings. Doing that for 10+ years and if anything I noticed I get fewer questions at the US border lately.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#208

Post by triceratops »

deepGem wrote: post #111
kaaie wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively, if wages were competitive in Canada (even considering cost of living and health care) there would be no reason to move. Personally, I'd much rather be in Canada to be near my family but I'd be making 1/2 the wage and have less talent to learn and grow from.

I still don't understand the pay rhetoric in Canada. I live in Bangalore, and I make more or less the same pay as in Toronto for nearly 1/5th the cost of living. Why are salaries so low in Canada ? Now at least owing to the US immigration fiasco, more labour should move in and salaries should technically rise - but I don't see that happening. Not sure why. Competitive salaries on par with California or even NYC will…

> I live in Bangalore, and I make more or less the same pay as in Toronto for nearly 1/5th the cost of living.

You sound like an outlier mate.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#209

Post by addicted »

mynegation wrote: post #136
ericmay wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Canada always get a pass on this but the US doesn’t? (This being points-based skilled immigration)

Canada also runs separate refugee immigration program. Also: the advantage of not having too many illegal immigrants coming through the border and having to make decisions when they and their children put roots in the country.

The US has so much land and so much economic capacity to add people (most of those people are already in the economic system so the US will have more trouble removing them than legalizing them) that the current illegal immigrants are not an issue at all. The US obviously needs to get better control of the borders (which it has for the past decade) but the only sensible, economically effective and not to mention humane way to deal with people already here is to provide them with legal status so they don’t remain an unprotected and therefore cheaper competitor for jobs.

Re: Google's expansion plans show why Canada's tech boom is here to stay

#210

Post by fredophile »

jariel wrote: post #109
fredophile wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to the US from Canada on a TN. I would've liked to stay where I was but the local job market wasn't great at the time. At the time I viewed it as temporary. Now I have no plans to go back. I'm making twice the base salary and I'm in an area with a significantly lower cost of living. The TN wasn't responsible for my leaving and it isn't the reason I'm staying away.

You actually just proved the opposite: your TN was the thing that got you a job paying 2x as much, gave you your foot in the door and exposure, and some time to establish longer-term plans. Without the TN it's likely you may not have been hired because it's not worth the effort for most companies: T1 is easy, then once you're in they can process it more. FYI this is not an argument for or against TN.

I needed to relocate or switch to a different industry. The option to relocate to the US was partly due to the TN. However, there would have been other options I could have looked at both domestically and abroad. There are plenty of countries with relatively easy immigration for people in the tech field.
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