> We have no atmosphere of innovation because our salaries are garbage compared to the US. This is the problem, every single time. Most of my Canadian graduate friends work for US companies, some remotely. We literally do not have economic reasons to stay here. No amount of lip service will ever transform 100k into 300k.

Being a Canadian who moved to the US because the salaries were far higher than what I could find at home, I agree with the sentiment.

However, I think it's a bit more complex than: low salaries lead to no atmosphere of innovation. It seems to be a bit of a cycle. We have less competition than the mega tech centers in the US which leads to lower salaries, which leads to brain drain, which again results in less competition, and this is a cycle that continues. To break out of it, we need either a.) more competitive salaries, or b.) more companies to form, or move up to Canada. I can't see a.) happening unless there's a motivation to do so (why pay more than you have to?).

It seems to me, this is an effort to attract large companies such as Google and Amazon (perhaps for HQ2) with the hopes that this might lead to the formation of other small companies and startups splintering off of large companies. If this were to happen, and Toronto became a larger tech hub a la Seattle or the Bay Area, I would expect salaries to go up. I'm holding out hope that Canada will be able to increase its tech presence, and thus result in higher, more globally competitive salaries, but perhaps I'm being too optimistic.