The Potential of the Canadian Tech Workforce - and the Reason Why the US is Looking at It

Canada has been going strong in the technology world. Different cities have sprung to show a talented workforce in the IT field, with Toronto being labeled another Silicon Valley as the city is now known for being the third-largest tech hub in North America.?

How is the market growing so much??

All heads turned to the true North when a LinkedIn report showcased the high numbers of the tech market in the country.?

The report shows the growth number Canada has had in the last year – and many are wondered the hows and the whys.?

Canada has a tech workforce of utter quality. The market is diverse, with many brilliant minds. As Alexandre Gagnon, VP for Amazon Canada, has said – “A key reason why Amazon continues to invest in Canada is because of the diverse and exceptionally talented workforce that exists here.”?

But that is not all! Canadian universities, such as U of T or Waterloo, are highly ranked and invest a lot in their technology departments.?

Investments also come from capital investments, with Canada having deals closed at billions of dollars every year. Add a high-quality of life to the list and the country earns extra points.?

The Canadian government on its own gives incentives to the tech industry through the Federal Skilled Worker Program. A process that aims to attract foreigners in to the tech market, the Program gives path for Permanent Residency and Citizenship in Canada.?

Why is the US looking at Canada?

Thanks to these efforts, Canada has outnumbered the US in the workforce, with a 1.6% growth while our neighbour had only a 1.1% in the past year. While cities like San Francisco or New York had a 4.7% talent growth, Toronto grew 6.3%. Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary are the cities with the fastest growth, focusing on positions of Data Engineers and Back-end Developers with praised skills in Cloud-computing.?

These numbers stirred a great deal of interest in the Canadian tech workforce from big American companies. Amazon, Reddit, Uber, Netflix, Meta, Google – are just a few names of enterprises who are looking at Canada and its talented wave of tech workers.?

Google is currently building offices in Toronto – and it also had a plan to highlight the technological hub the city of Toronto is quietly turning into through the Sidewalk Labs project, named Sidewalk Toronto. The idea was to advance urban development in Waterfront Toronto, creating more affordable and sustainable housing. However, due to the pandemic, the proposal was discontinued – you can read more about it here.?

However, it seems that the new Google offices are still up and running to be built – and not only that, but also offices from Meta. Toronto can expect more than three thousand jobs generated through the engineering hubs Meta plans to open in the city. The company also plans to donate to Canadian labs that will assist in advancing the creation of the Metaverse.?

Canada is quietly and quickly turning into the new face of technology. The country is taking over the market in great numbers, and Canadians will soon be able to experience the full results of the potential a capable and diverse workforce can bring.

UPDATE: In an effort to bring back the Sidewalk project, a group of architects came together to build a tech-utopia at Waterfront once again - Quayside 2.0 is taking an approach to leave the city greener and more technological. The news was shared this year, and you can read more about it here.