A conference with entrepreneurs, industry and government representatives is being held in Ottawa on how Canada can become more innovative.
Allen Lau, C-E-O and co-founder of Wattpad, says immigration regulations are preventing companies from hiring top flight talent from other countries. Lau speaks from his own experience after talking to someone who wanted to come to Canada and had two other offers but wasn’t willing to wait six months to get approval.
Lau says if he wanted to immigrate to the U-K, the process could be completed in just a few weeks.
Sean Silcoff of the Globe and Mail says another example is a Canadian based company called Figure One which is like an instagram for doctors and wanted to get immigration approval for a hire. When that didn’t happen, she worked out of New York where all the job growth is now taking place instead of Toronto.
The conference was told businesses don’t want to wait months and don’t want the hassle.
