Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-job, no-worries permits

Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by TimPC on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @09:05AM (#36505840)

Canada won't do the work needed to retain them. Talking to lots of people it's mostly the combination of unaffordable housing (Canada has a far larger housing crisis than the US does with our two largest metro areas containing 25% of the country's population not having non-condo homes under $1 million) and high tax rates. People have some tolerance for paying tax rates in the 42-44% range plus sales tax plus property tax if their life is overall affordable, but when home prices are staggering high and that life becomes out of reach people move somewhere better. You can't fix housing when you want to import people faster than you can build homes for them (and Canada wants to grow to 100M people over 50 years) and you can't lower taxes when you want to pay for things without crushing debt and Canada seems to want more government programs not less.

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by mr90210 on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @09:25AM (#36506108)

Thanks for the context.

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by lukas099 on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @09:55AM (#36506527)

> Canada has a far larger housing crisis than the US does

I did not know this. Makes me wonder -- what is the point at which housing is so unaffordable that people start to riot?

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by randomdata on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @10:26AM (#36506977)

It is unlikely there is such a point.

The Canadian government still holds crown land that they will give away for free to anyone willing to settle it. That provides an option of last resort. Any location in the country that compels one away from free has got to be worth it. While one may complain, as people love to do, they are still pulling out their purses because they know it is worth every penny.

Should the balance change, people will leave for greener pastures before worrying about rioting. Canada's whole legacy is built on people moving around when certain locations become too expensive. Its ancestral people have done it over, and over, and over again. There is no reason to think this time is different.

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by swader999 on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @11:21AM (#36507792)

Really? Where do I sign up for this crown land?

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by red-iron-pine on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @04:06PM (#36511848)

there are, no jokes, apps for that.

hope you're comfortable with -40C or lower

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by swader999 on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @05:27PM (#36512837)

I know you can buy crown land but I don't see it anywhere for free. I can do -40 but I've never seen it that cold for very long.

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Re:Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-jo... by mrguyorama on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @04:01PM (#36511799)

It's called homelessness and the american republicans want you to feel like it's because of lax law enforcement instead of, you know, the median salary in my city not being enough to actually live in the city.

You probably haven't even heard about my city, because it has only 60k ish people and still runs into that problem.

"But but but but zoning and developers can't build cheap housing because they aren't allowed to!". Funny, that didn't stop them from building hundreds of units of assisted living facilities right in some of the most expensive land they could find. Maybe it's because, in a capitalistic system, it's more incentivized to build a structure that can charge the state $12k a month per resident that they neglect than one that can charge each resident $2k a month because they actually have to be able to afford it.

Meanwhile grandma doesn't even know where they are.

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