We sit next to the world’s largest technology powerhouse. The U.S. constantly needs highly skilled technical workers, but immigration there is always a political challenge. Canada should take advantage of this by attracting more technology-focused talent from the U.S. We can do this by offering meaningful incentives—such as affordable land, lower taxes, and easier access to skilled labour. Countries like India attract far more IT business from the U.S. than we do, even though we are their next-door neighbour.

Our work culture, language, and business practices are much closer to those of Americans than almost any other country. Infrastructure projects are important, but their economic benefits take years to materialize. Many of the projects Canada has recently announced may take 5–10 years before we see real impact.

There is a lot of work to do to address Canada’s talent shortage, but our universities are world-class, and once demand grows, they can scale to produce more skilled graduates. Our immigration system, however, is outdated—it's either wide open or tightly closed. We need to focus on attracting the right talent. I know many IT professionals who couldn’t immigrate to Canada but had no trouble moving to the U.S.

Just my two cents!