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Brain gain Luring back ex-pats is group's aim By SARAH DOUGHERTY - The Montreal Gazette |
| Eight years ago, tired of Montreal and ready for a change, Michael Gaug
took up an offer to do a stint at his employer's office in sunny California. An engineering project manager for Spar Aerospace Ltd., Gaug oversaw a satellite contract in the original high-tech mecca of the U.S. - Silicon Valley. After his work for Spar ended, Gaug stayed on in California as an independent consultant. But despite the handsome salaries, low taxes, energetic work environment and stunning beauty of California, Gaug, now 43, never quite felt at ease. "I felt like a stranger in a strange land," Gaug said. "There is little in the way of communities, because people often can't afford to live near where they work, so they have long commutes," Gaug said. "And money is a huge fixation because you are paying so much to live." Despite having no job lined up, in 1996 Gaug bucked the brain drain, coming back to Montreal and settling in N.D.G. In time he found work with Montreal-based Maya Heat Transfer Technologies Ltd., an engineering software and services company. A group of Montreal organizations is determined to lure back more of the expatriates who've settled not only in Silicon Valley, but in other high-tech hotbeds such as Seattle, Boston and New York. There are still many more Canadians heading to the U.S. than coming home. California alone is home to an estimated 300,000 Canadians, including 60,000 Quebecers. This week, Montreal International, a public-private organization that promotes the greater Montreal area, the Coudert Brothers law firm and TechnoCap, a venture-capital firm, are on a mission in Silicon Valley. At a meeting with a group of Canadian ex-pats who've dubbed themselves the Digital Moose Lounge, the organizations will be spreading the good news about Montreal: that it is emerging as an important high-tech cluster area in North America with significant advantages over other centres. "A lot of people are not aware of what is going on in Montreal," said Louise Thiboutot of Montreal International. "There are many new advantages to locating here that did not exist even five years ago." These assets include relatively low operating costs and corporate taxes, generous government support for R&D, tax holidays for foreign workers, the presence of four major universities and an avant-garde social and cultural scene, the latter being high on the list of priorities for younger information-technology workers. Changes to capital-gains rules and personal-income tax levels would help make the business environment even more attractive, Thiboutot said. But the basis for Montreal International's boosterism is borne out by several recent studies on the local economy, including a PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada report ranking Montreal fourth per capita in North America in high-tech job density in sectors such as information technology, biopharmaceuticals and aerospace. Thiboutot and others on the California mission know the stakes are high and there is no time to waste. Montreal is in a race against other North American cities and can't afford to keep hemorrhaging talent. "We have all the elements here to be Silicon Valley North, but we need to do branding, create a hype, a buzz," Thiboutot said. "And even if we can't get people back, they still might want to open satellite offices here or be ambassadors for Montreal." This is the first trip Montreal International has organized to the Valley, and it hopes to use the experience to plan promotional events in other U.S. cities. For TechnoCap, the need to attract talent is urgent. The company invests in 12 Canadian high-tech start-ups, half of which are in Montreal. These young companies employ about 700 workers, but need to add up to 500 in the coming year, said Susan Read, who heads up TechnoCap's brain-gain recruiting initiative. "There is a lot of great talent in Canada," Read said. "But we want to open the doors to Canadians all over the world who want to come back. "We need to get the news out about what's happening here," she said. "Maybe when these people left, there were not the same opportunities as there are now." TechnoCap makes frequent trips to Silicon Valley to keep up to speed on industry developments, and it organized two meetings with potential investors and ex-patriate Canadians last year. Read said she knows of some Canadians who've come back to TechnoCap companies, but said it's too soon to measure in a systematic way how the recruiting efforts are paying off. At Coudert Brothers, an international law firm with a Montreal office, the California trip is a chance to drum up clients and be good corporate citizens, according to Coudert partner Michel Coderre. "We are doing this as good Canadians, but we are also trying to create opportunities for cross-border business and then do the legal work for those transactions," Coderre said. This week's meeting with the Digital Moose Lounge is costing the three sponsors roughly $23,000, excluding travel and hotel costs. Susan Chung, an ex-pat who heads up the Lounge and has been crowned the Prime Moose, said the event was shaping up to be one of the most popular on the group's agenda. "The door prize of a trip for two to Montreal doesn't hurt," Chung said. A former Canadian journalist, Chung is taking a break from her profession while her spouse works at a medical-imaging company in the Valley. The Lounge was started up about a year ago, primarily as a social group. "We get together once a month and talk Canuck," Chung said. "We already have about 700 members and that's without even doing a lot of work. It obviously fulfills a need, maybe because you really feel Canadian when you're down here." For almost all the ex-pat Moose, taxes and the weather were a factor, but by far, the most important allure of Silicon Valley is the "excitement of being in the thick of things," Chung said. "I think the message has finally gotten out in Canada that what draws people here is the job opportunities." Dimitrios Papadogonas is one ex-pat who planned to attend the Digital Moose Lounge event this week. A native of Edmonton, Papadogonas works on new business opportunities and product development at Apple Computer in the Valley after leaving Montreal-based Future Electronics two years ago. "The atmosphere here is just very optimistic," Papadogonas said. "There is just a lot of enthusiasm and an upbeat attitude that was lacking in Montreal." Papadogonas said that in his short tenure at Apple, he has already been given promotions and salary increases. "As much as I love Canada, I can't help but feel that this wouldn't have been possible in Montreal or Toronto," Papadogonas said, referring to his quick rise and generous compensation. "They are just more willing to take risks here. It's a more aggressive environment." But personal circumstances might draw Papadogonas back to Montreal: his girlfriend, a lawyer who is busy helping a start-up go public, would eventually like to rejoin her family in Montreal. Chung said many Canadians she knows also don't see themselves in the Valley in the long run. The high cost of living, especially soaring prices for homes, as well as long commutes and general homesickness are what draws many home, Chung said. Those quality-of-life issues become even more important as people start families, Chung said. She and her husband are expecting their first child and plan to come back to Canada in the next few years. Montreal International and its partners are banking on many more ex-patriates wanting to opt for a different quality of life. For Michael Gaug, the value placed on diversity in Canada, more liveable and intimate communities and lower cost of living became considerations every bit as important as the lucrative employment market. An avid outdoorsman, Gaug was even disenchanted by the weather. "I got tired of it always being so nice," he said. "It's like living in an artificial bubble. "Job opportunities are just one piece of quality of life." |