Article content

This summer, Facebook is cutting the ribbon on a brand new office in downtown Vancouver. The social media giant will employ some 150 staff, mainly recent software engineering grads from the area. According to the company, Vancouver was an ideal choice: close to Facebook offices in Seattle and Silicon Valley and attractive enough to pull in talented new recruits.

For Vancouver tech boosters, this would seem validation: bricks-and-mortar proof that the city is on its way to becoming Silicon Valley North, a new hub of tech innovation north of the border.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Why Canada is failing at tech Back to video

Unfortunately, the reality is quite nearly the opposite. Facebook’s new office has a one-year lifespan. It’s a pop-up boot camp for training local software engineers and then shipping them to the U.S. In fact, one year happens to be roughly the time required for a Canadian engineer to secure a permit for full-time work in the states.

Rather than contributing to a homegrown tech scene, in other words, the new office will siphon off the already limited number of qualified professionals in the region. It’s less a success story than a reminder of a chronic problem.