Spot on. This new institute (and other govt efforts like it) all fail to answer this fundamental question - why would someone work at half the pay (or less) if they were a Canadian citizen? It is a chicken-and-egg problem .. salaries and labour pool quality go hand in hand.
Equal society? Lets see you buy a detached house in Toronto if you are a first generation immigrant, and your parents are not loaded. If you do not own property today, I don't see a way to EVER afford it in Toronto. Our society is hell-bent on taxing income when we should really be taxing wealth. The latest budget is fairly against young people in favor of old people. But to each their own I guess.
Being able to buy a bit faster doesn't make up for how badly poverty is treated in America. I would argue, in fact, that although it may be harder for a tech worker to break into ownership in Canada, your family can still take advantage of the countless social programs that aren't available to all hardworking people in America :)
And there's more to Canada than Toronto. Montreal has great rent prices and a fun-loving tech scene, and a very unique culture. Quebec has $5 a day daycare, free healthcare for all, and McGill university which is ranked as one of the best research institutions in the world despite having the cheapest tuition in North America (although prices for non-residents are quite a bit higher).
I never said Canadian society is perfectly equal, just more equal than US society. Sure property distribution is a massive issue but that's the case in any urban centre. There's a lot of progress left to be made but that doesn't mean we should just give up and head south.
Exactly. To invite people to stay here we need unicorn companies that young talent actually want to work for. I don't think this solves that problem as efficiently as possible. Would they be better giving that money to local startups in the space in hopes they become a unicorn and stay in Canada?