This goes for Canadian employers in general, not just those in Vancouver. I&#x27;m not sure how they expect to retain talent when they offer on average about half the salary of similar positions in the US when adjusted for currency (and I&#x27;m not even talking about SF... Seattle is a 3 hour drive from Vancouver and moving there can easily double your salary with a comparable cost of living), especially since the barrier to entry into the US is practically non-existent for citizens.<p>Understandably, employers in Canada want to save money by competing only with their Canadian neighbors in terms of salaries, but this attitude seems extremely shortsighted to me, and results in a vicious negative feedback loop: companies offer lower salaries -&gt; low availability of higher tier talent -&gt; companies under-compete -&gt; companies can now only afford lower salaries -&gt; rinse and repeat. I believe this has been having a profound effect on competitiveness of the Canadian tech industry as a whole (see Blackberry&#x2F;RIM as a prime example of this phenomenon).<p>As a recent Waterloo grad, I&#x27;ve witnessed the brain-drain first hand. Everyone I know from school who&#x27;s any good has left for lucrative US positions, and I&#x27;ll probably be joining them soon.