As someone who has hired software developers in Canada and looked into opening an office there in a previous role, I'll tell you that taxes are prohibitive both for employers and employees. With the US this close it's often cheaper and easier for everyone involved to deal with the US immigration process and pay and employee's moving expenses than it is to try and set up a Canadian headquarters or hire workers there.

This is true on a state by state basis in the US as well. Hawaii is a nightmare to hire workers in, so much so that our HR put their foot down and told me they're not supporting it anymore. Meanwhile hiring someone in Washington, Texas, or Florida is a breeze.

I pulled out of Mexico in my current role and moved those jobs to Chile, Brazil, and the Balkans. The reason had nothing to do with the talent of the engineers in Mexico and everything to do with how painful it is to deal with their government.

If Canada wants high paying tech jobs there is a very straight-forward way for them to get them: make their government bureaucracy more efficient and pass those savings on to your citizens.