Canadian Brain Drain
December 9, 2025•123 words
Imagine a 34-year-old data scientist in Vancouver who was raised in Halifax and hopes to "make it" back home. After taxes, daycare for one child, and a mortgage on a 700-square-foot condo that somehow costs $1.2 million, she has less disposable income than her brother slinging code in South Carolina on $220k U.S.
Date nights are long gone, groceries seem like a luxury, and every April she gives the government another five-figure check while she waits nine months to see a dermatologist.
Her friend, an immigrant surgeon, recently accepted an offer in Minnesota that practically doubled her pay overnight, but she is still unable to obtain a full license after three years and forty thousand dollars in exams. Cost in Canada is expensive.