Naila Moloo, 19, won the 2022 Canadian Youth Innovation Award at the age of 16 for creating a flexible solar panel prototype when she was a Grade 11 student at Elmwood School in Ottawa.
asserted
she → win → Ottawa
She plans to become an entrepreneur, pursuing her own AI-startup, Periodwise, which assists with menstrual management for women.
asserted
which → plan → women
She’s attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — and considering living in the United States permanently to pursue her dream.
asserted
She → attend → dream
“There are a lot of opportunities in the U.S., especially in the tech scene,” she says.
asserted
she → be → scene
Moloo is not alone in that thinking, studies suggest.
asserted
studies → suggest → thinking
Last year, Canada lost about 65,000 residents to net emigration, according to Statistics Canada.
uncertain
Canada → lose → Canada
A paper by the Canadian Labour Economics Forum suggests it is mostly young, high-skilled workers who are being lost.
uncertain
who → suggest → Forum
A 2025 report by the Leaders Fund warned that Canada risks “missing out on the next Shopify.”
asserted
Canada → warn → Shopify
“We’re seeing a pretty significant exodus of our most ambitious entrepreneurs.
asserted
We → see → entrepreneurs
They are leaving Canada and moving to the U.S., and that’s intensified over the last decade,” says Charles Lammam, Senior Fellow at the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), a free-enterprise thinktank.
asserted
Lammam → leave → Institute
Nearly one in two Canadian company founders who raised over $1 million in 2024 are now based in the U.S., he notes, citing the Leaders Fund study.
asserted
he → raise → study
It’s a problem politicians, economists and the business community want to solve.
asserted
politicians → ’ → ?
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s planned Investment Summit Sept. 14 and 15 is part of the strategy, aiming to stem the outflow of investment dollars from Canada and attract new capital – particularly at a time when acrimonious trade talks with the U.S. have added instability.
asserted
talks → aim → instability
Boosting investment could help keep Canadian innovators at home, building successful businesses here.
uncertain
Boosting → boost → businesses
Why are young innovators — tomorrow’s successful entrepreneurs — leaving Canada?
asserted
innovators → leave → Canada
Hint: It’s not about their ideas.
asserted
It → hint → ideas
“There’s no shortage of smart, talented people in Canada,” says Michael Buhr, a serial entrepreneur and executive director of C100 – an association of Canadian tech veterans from Silicon Valley dedicated to building up Canadian innovation.
asserted
Buhr → ’ → innovation
Buhr says Canada has great educational and research institutions.
asserted
Canada → say → institutions
Canadian talent has, in the past, created giants such as Nortel, Research in Motion, Shopify and more.
asserted
talent → create → Motion
A new report by CBRE, a real estate corporation, writes that of the top 15 tech talent markets in North America, six are in Canada.
asserted
six → write → Canada
(Toronto ranks third, with Vancouver and Waterloo Region also in the top 10.
asserted
Toronto → rank → 10
Montreal weighs in at 11, Ottawa 14 and Calgary 15.
asserted
Calgary → weigh → 11
But great research, talent and ideas are not enough, says Daniel Debow, founder of DMI – Debow Musical Instruments, company producer at Ambitious Adventurers and a board director at Loblaw Companies Limited, based in Toronto.
asserted
Debow → say → Toronto
“Innovation … is not invention, innovation is applying an invention to a market.”
asserted
innovation → apply → market
In other words, it has to be successfully “commercialized.”
asserted
it → have → words
The critical players in this field are incubators, which give very early-stage companies access to mentorship, investors and other support, as the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) describes them.
asserted
Bank → give → them
University of British Columbia, as one example among many, has three flagship programs: HATCH Venture Builder, Lab2Market and Venture Founder.
asserted
University → have → programs
According to the university, these have helped create 296 spin-off companies, 91 per cent of which remain in Canada.
uncertain
cent → accord → Canada
They’ve raised about $414 billion,” wrote Lucy Hargreaves in a recent LinkedIn post, citing statistics in The Dominion List.
asserted
Hargreaves → raise → List
“Nearly all of the founders went to school in Canada.”
asserted
all → go → Canada
Canada is paying for their schooling, and they are taking their ideas across the border.
asserted
they → pay → border
Examples of major American companies founded by Canadians who emigrated to Silicon Valley include Instacart’s Apoorva Mehta, Uber’s Garrett Camp and Slack’s Stuart Butterfield.
asserted
who → found → Mehta
One reason, argues Lammam, is Canada’s tax policy, which is “not competitive globally – and certainly not more attractive than the U.S.”
asserted
which → argue → U.S.
Canadians “are paying the fifth highest marginal tax rate in the entire set of OECD economies,” he says.
asserted
he → pay → economies
Canada used to be relatively competitive on corporate taxation, but this advantage has dwindled since 2017 when the U.S. cut its rates, he says.
asserted
he → use → rates
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act further strengthened U.S. tax advantages” for entrepreneurs, he adds.
asserted
he → strengthen → entrepreneurs
Even Canada’s Small Business Deduction has been only a limited help to starting entrepreneurs, according to Lammam.
uncertain
Deduction → start → Lammam
While some taxes might be lower in the U.S., the costs of doing business in certain cases might still be higher than in Canada, however.
uncertain
costs → do → Canada
Buhr, who moved to Silicon Valley after university for a job with Apple, has lived in the U.S. for decades, founding his companies, Bridge Strategies and Voice Over IT, there.
asserted
who → move → IT
He says private health care insurance and other mandatory expenses south of the border even the playing field: “In the U.S., 38 per cent of your (company) fundraising goes to paying for employees.
asserted
cent → say → employees
…and 102 more, not listed.
