This is an addendum to one of my posts last week regarding comments made by Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development - he hopes that that Trudeau's new budgetary measures will attract "top-notch workers, scientists and scholars from the U.S."

Lets look at the competition he and Canada faces in trying to attract U.S. workers. USA Today published an article this past weekend on "Tech Job Migration" (the link is at bottom of Blog. The salient points from this article are...

• There are more than 500,000 open computing jobs nationwide, according to Code.org
• Paysa, a career advice website, states there will be more than 1 million job postings in the U.S. in the first three months of this year.
• Annual salaries were lowest in the Midwest ($76,999) and South ($84,414)

Many Tech startups and even existing "Big Players" are relocating to cities like Phoenix, Tucson, Houston and Denver for reasons of lower operating costs and an increased ability to attract new talent based on the lower costs for housing and lower costs of living.

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Lets take a look at the attraction for a potential tech employee and what they will choose Phoenix for example over Ottawa.

Taxes & Cost of Living

An individual in Phoenix making $80K will have a tax rate, before deductions of 17.9%. The save individual in Ottawa will have a personal tax rate of 31.5% (nearly double). In Phoenix the worker will be able to purchase a 2,000 sq/ft home, within a 30 minute commute, for approximately $250K. The same home within a hour commute of Ottawa will cost approximately $650K. The employee in Phoenix will only require a downpayment of $12.5K with 100% of the mortgage interest being deductible. The Canadian will need $65K downpayment to obtain a reasonable mortgages rate without CMHC Insurance. Taxes on the Phoenix house will be $1,900/yr whereas the property taxes on the Ottawa home would be $6,000/yr. Utilities, gas and other costs of living are approximately 17% higher in Ottawa than in Phoenix (https://www.expatistan.com). HST tax in Ottawa 13% in Phoenix 8.6% (only on goods, services not taxed). Health Care, the Ottawa employee will receive "Free" Healthcare, the company will, in all likelihood, have a Benefits package for the employee. As of January 2016  U.S. employers are required to provide adequate health insurance coverage options for employees. At a minimum the Phoenix company will provide the employee with 70 percent/30 percent. Out of pocket premium expense (fully deductible) for the employee would range from $1,118 for single or individual employee coverage; $2,824 for employee-plus-one coverage and $4,236 for family coverage.

Will all the above taken into consideration the Phoenix employee will have approximately $38,000 more for discretionary spending per year than the Ottawa employee!

​Get ready for the stampede Minister Navdeep Bains!!!!!
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Today President Trump's signed an executive order on American energy independence reversing many Obama era environmental initiatives. Trump's executive order will roll back at least 10 major Obama environmental regulations thus providing the framework for a new Trump-era energy framework that will emphasize more production, more jobs and fewer environmental safeguards. The order makes good on Trump's promise to end what he called a "war on coal," and to bring back coal jobs.
 
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists the United States is often noted as the being the most significant contributor to historical emissions of global warming pollution. Most of these emissions occur when power plants burn coal or natural gas and when vehicles burn gasoline or diesel. China is rated #1, the USA #2 and Canada ranks #7 according to the 2008 study. China and the US together produce around 45% of global carbon emissions
 
China, the world's biggest polluter however, the country has not set a specific target for cutting emissions of the gases, mainly carbon dioxide. Recently, a cloud of industrial pollution caused by China’s factories was so large and dense it was visible to satellites.

Over the period 1948 to 2013, the average annual temperature in Canada has warmed by 1.6 ° C. New research reveals that during our cold-weather season, pollution in China is altering weather patterns in the United States and Canada.
 
Meanwhile in Canada the Federal and Provincial Governments are placing the responsibility, read taxes, on the heads of the average Canadian citizen. Most recently, following BC’s lead, the Alberta and Ontario governments have added a carbon tax on gasoline and virtually eliminated coal fired electric plants. As if the average Canadian can limit their use of their automobiles or turn off electrical appliances significantly enough to affect climate change. Four-fifths of Canadians will live in provinces with such taxes in 2017, and in 2018 all Canadians could be paying a carbon tax.  The tax, we are told, is revenue-neutral, with proceeds used to cut corporate and personal income taxes.
 
​In fact, Canadians breathe easier than most people in the world, ranking third in an-air quality index released by the World Health Organization.

If we look at the following list of Worse Polluting Industries most do not have a large presence in Canada.

​Coupled with Trumps promises to reduce business taxes from 35% to 15% introducing carbon taxes, additional manufacturing regulations and making Canadian energy more expensive is a no-win plan against Trump’s America. Businesses will invest there not in Canada.

Todays Blog is inspired by comments made by Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development - he hopes that that Trudeau's new budgetary measures will attract "top-notch workers, scientists and scholars from the U.S.

Are you kidding me? What are we doing to keep home-grown talent? It is estimated that approximately 350,000 Canadian Engineers, researchers and academics currently live and work in the US. While the majority are in California there are also large populations in Arizona, Florida and Texas.

​Phoenix is currently billing itself as the "new" silicon valley and actively recruiting in California. They are boasting that there are over 4,000 jobs available with major employers such as Honeywell, Intel and other "Tier 1" employers. There pitch is built around good wages, low taxes and affordable living with good housing available in the mid $200K. Add to this a low cost of living and great weather they have a strong pitch.

Other than the "Sky is Falling" hysteria surrounding Trump what does Canada have to offer? Minimum job opportunity - over 10,000 engineering jobs have been lost in the oil patch in the last three years, minimal high-technology opportunities, 44 jobs in Waterloo ON - $50K+, low pay, high taxes, high cost of living and sky high home prices. Compare this to 301 posted jobs in Phoenix - $50K+, comparable pay, low taxes, medium cost of living and low cost housing.
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Bottom line is that you can put up with a lot of "politics" if you personally enjoy a comfortable standard of living.

This week a number of Canadian statistics were released; Retail Sales fell in December by 0.5% with 9 of the major 11 sectors registering declines including automobiles. The Canadian consumer price index rose .9%. Inflation now sits at 2.1%. Despite the decline retail sales however posted a 4.5% growth. In a previous post I discussed the growth of a couple of Canadian retailers. Again this is simple math; they are either selling to more people or they are increasing their prices within the existing base! Not too hard to figure out.

The annual inflation rate took its highest jump in the last two years, the leader? Gasoline! The price of which has increased over 20% - the largest increase in six years. How did our friends south of the border do? Well they don't have an issue as their gas prices decreased at the pump over the same period. Oh, and no they didn't see a carbon tax either!

This POST will build on one of my previous posts re all the Canadian expats that are now living in the US. In a July 2013 FP article titled Why Is Canada Failing at Tech it was estimated that 350,000 Canadian technology professionals were living in the San Francisco Bay area. The Reason? "a veritable lost generation lured by good, high-paying tech jobs and access to collaborators and capital." It's not getting any better, in fact most Canadian proffesionals would gladly head south if the opportunity arose

The following are excerpts from the February 16th. George Takach, senior partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP article Canada's Patent Deficit....

"relative to our key trading partners, and especially the United States, we are not as innovative and have not invested as heavily in information technology and other productivity-enhancing devices, systems and methodologies (such as state-of-the-art e commerce platforms). This gap – this deficit – threatens our future prosperity. For example, roughly 3 per cent of our workforce is made up of people in information and telecommunications jobs. In leading digital countries, that percentage is between 6 and 8 per cent.

How dismal is the state of patent-filing in Canada? Even the North Koreans are outperforming us! We are simply not among the top 20 countries in terms of patents filed per capita. Read the full article here.
http://newscdn.newsrep.net/h5/nrshare.html?r=3&lan=en_US&pid=14&id=UJ8ea4090yn_us&app_lan=en_US&mcc=&declared_lan=en_US&pubaccount=ocms_0&showall=1

Today the EU signed off on the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). The agreement provides for duty-free trade between Canada and the EU (for 98% of industrial products) and offers agricultural producers additional market access. One of the holdups was that Belgian farmers did not want more competition from Canadian dairy products, you know the ones we pay more for than our American neighbors! The Conference Board research estimates that elimination of EU tariffs will lead to $1.4 billion more in exports in 2023. We currently have trade deficits (2015) with Germany: -$10.7 billion, Italy: -$4.0 billion and France: -$2.9 billion. With Belgium we enjoy a $614.4 million surplus. Most EU Countries have been trading with Canada under the MFN (“Most-Favoured-Nation Tariff”) status and, as such, many goods have, up till now, entered Canada tariff free. http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2016/01-99/01-99-t2016-3-eng.pdf
 
The EU and Canada have agreed to scrap 100% of tariff’s on industrial and fisheries products. With regards to agricultural products, the EU and Canada will eliminate 93.8% and 91.7% of tariff’s respectively. Some agricultural products seen as “sensitive” (e.g. eggs or chicken and turkey meat) are not covered by CETA, while for some others (e.g. beef ) duty-free access will only be granted for limited quantities. CETA does not prevent the EU and Canada from keeping a number of regulatory and licensing requirements in place it’s comprised of 600,000 pages of rules and exceptions!
 
According to a Canadian Government presentation; CETA will create jobs, open new markets and unlock new opportunities in Europe for the benefit of Canadian workers and businesses in every region of our country. It is equivalent to creating almost 80,000 new jobs or increasing the average Canadian household’s annual income by $1,000. This will directly benefit hard-working Canadians through more jobs, higher wages and greater long-term prosperity. http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/assets/pdfs/ceta-aecg/final_sectors_content-eng_v11.pdf

So what will CETA’s impact be on you, the average Canadian consumer? 

Will the price of French, German and Italian wine go down at your Provincial outlet? The deal is said that it will chip away at a trade barrier that currently protects Ontario wines and hard liquor, ultimately making European booze less expensive. Don’t hold your breath though, the provinces will probably eat up this advantage through higher alcohol taxes etc.

The agreement will more than double the quota of cheese imported from the European Union to about 30,000 tonnes per year, which could take a bite out of Ontario and Quebec dairies’ market share. However, Ottawa has assured the provinces it will pay compensation to cheese producers, and that it will set up a marketing campaign for local cheese. (Your tax dollars at work again.)

Under CETA, Canada has agreed to adopt EU measures on so-called “patent term restoration.” Drug patents typically last for 20 years but if it takes more than five years between when a patent on a new drug is filed and marketing authorization is granted, the drug maker will now get an extra two years of patent protection as compensation. This could raise Canadian drug prices and cost provincial health plans, but the federal government believes the price hikes will be small and won’t kick in for years. (Have the ever lied to us before?).

​For Canadian consumers, the end of a 6.1 per cent tariff on European imports will make German-made BMW’s and other vehicles like Audi, Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini more affordable. (Don’t all rush out at once!)
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Trump has clearly stated that NAFTA is a "Bad Deal" for the U.S. Well I also think that it is a bad deal for the Canadian Consumer. If we take a look at what some of the points are that Trump wants to renegociate we can see how it will benefit the Canadian consumer...

The U.S. publishes an annual list of complaints about trade practices in other countries.

• Cheese and dairy: Canada's regulations on compositional standards restrict access to the Canadian market for U.S. dry milk proteins. The report says Canada limits imports by providing milk components at discounted prices to domestic processors.

​A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. We have 120 marketing boards in this Canada. Prices for most board regulated products have increased excessively in Canada compared to the rest of the world—in fact prices in Canada are almost three times as high as other countries. Interesting to note that a family pays less for three liters of pop/soda than for three liners of milk - sad state of affairs!

• Supply management: Canada limits imports of dairy, chicken, turkey, and eggs. The report says U.S. imports above quota levels face big tariffs - 245 per cent for cheese, 298 per cent for butter. "(This) inflates the prices Canadians pay for dairy and poultry."

 

• Wine and liquor: Canadians get taxed on imports of U.S. alcohol upon returning from U.S. trips, the report says. "This inhibits Canadians from purchasing U.S. alcoholic beverages while (travelling)." To boot, most provinces restrict sales of wine, beer, and spirits to provincial liquor boards, which have a monopoly. 

Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the free world for alcoholic beverages. The price of a bottle of Budweiser in Ontario (Beer Store) is $1.75. In the U.S. (Safeway) it's $0.56. Smirnoff Vodka Ontario (LCBO) $57.00 U.S. (Safeway) $9.95.

• Retail: Canadians have stricter rules on what they can bring home from a vacation duty-free. They also are allowed to buy far less online duty-free from abroad. Canadians pay a customs fee when importing anything over $20 from online purchases - for Americans, the limit is $800.

Canadians are not allowed any Duty Free purchases unless they are out of country for more than 24 hours. If more than 24 hours but less than 48 hours $200. CDN but no alcohol. After 48 hours $800. CDN ($608. U.S.) one bottle allowed.

• Telecommunications: Canada maintains a 46.7 per cent limit on foreign ownership of major telecommunications suppliers. The report says: "This is one of the most restrictive regimes among developed countries."

Don't believe this one take a look at your TV, Internet and Phone bills!

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