Have you seen the job listings for data scientists in Canada? It's paltry even here in Toronto compared to parts of the U.S. like SF which have a fraction of the population. Last time I checked, when I searched Data Scientist in SF there were 3000+ listings while in Toronto there maybe a little over a hundred.

And of the few job listings I've seen, most have high standards (PhD or min. Masters, x years of experience) with old companies (banks, car companies).

What's funny is that a lot of people in my circle in Canada are actually doing work for companies outside of the country (U.S., China...)