American technology companies are taking advantage of Canada’s subsidized tuition and should be required to reimburse taxpayers, CEO of SOTI, Carl Rodrigues recently told a television channel.
Rodrigues, whose multi-million dollar tech company SOTI is Canadian mobile software company with offices in Canada, the Middle East, India and Europe, said it was only reasonable to ask that American companies should not freeload off the Canadian taxpayer.
Many top Canadian graduates flock to California’s Silicon Valley where they can earn higher salaries and better workplace perks than if they worked and stayed in Canada. The exchange rate too is not in favor of people staying back here which is leading to a dwindling talent pool. This has led to some Canadians voicing their opinions on the matter.
They feel the new graduates, who had no problems utilizing the benefits of being Canadians including financial benefits like subsidized tuition, don’t want to give back to their community but rather prefer heading south to the U.S. for fat paychecks from tech companies.
“These are big multinationals and the young kids graduating out of university are really enamoured by the big brands and they offer big bucks.” Rodrigues said.
“CEOs like myself who are proudly Canadian are saying, let’s make sure some of that investment stays here in Canada.”
The graduates and the tech companies who hire them are taking advantage of Canada’s subsidized tuition and should pay some of that back since they are benefitting from the talent produced here, he added.
It is estimated that around 350,000 Canadian expats work and live in California. That is about one percent of Canada’s total population.
“CEOs like myself who are proudly Canadian are saying, let’s make sure some of that investment stays here in Canada.” Rodrigues said.
The questions are really whether the government should subsidize educations for those who never really end up paying taxes here, would making the big companies pay up for hiring graduates from Canada who have utilized the subsidized tuition be a solution to the issue at all?
