Canada losing top talent as workers head to the U.S.

Canada productivity gap driving talent to U.S. firms

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Market OutlookMarket Outlook: Canada losing top talent as workers head to the U.S. By BNN Bloomberg Opens in new window Published: May 25, 2026 at 12:22PM EDT

Francis Fong, managing director at TD Economics, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss Canada's silent 'brain drain'. A new TD Economics report warns Canada is quietly losing highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs and STEM graduates to the United States through work visas, tech recruitment and stronger economic opportunities. BNN Bloomberg spoke with Francis Fong, managing director at TD Economics, about how Canada’s tax structure, productivity challenges and lack of business scale are contributing to the country’s ongoing talent retention problem.

Key Takeaways Canada is quietly losing highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs and STEM talent to the United States through stronger compensation and career opportunities. Productivity challenges are being worsened by weak business scale-up, lower venture capital availability and a lack of globally competitive firms. High marginal tax rates and lower income thresholds are creating competitiveness concerns for professionals and business owners. Lower-tax U.S. states such as Texas and Florida continue attracting Canadian workers and entrepreneurs seeking higher growth opportunities. Retaining top talent will require stronger economic competitiveness, improved business investment and better conditions for firms to grow domestically. Francis Fong, managing director at TD Economics Francis Fong, managing director at TD Economics Read the full transcript below: ROGER: A new report from TD Economics argues Canada is quietly losing many of its most skilled workers, entrepreneurs and STEM graduates to the U.S. The report calls it a “silent brain drain,” led by highly skilled professionals leaving through work visas, tech recruitment and stronger economic opportunities. Joining us now to discuss this is Francis Fong, co-author of the report and managing director at TD Economics. Francis, thanks very much for joining us. FRANCIS: Thanks for having me, Roger. ROGER: Okay, how does this compare to the ’90s when we saw a brain drain then? Is it larger? Different sectors? FRANCIS: No, I think, Roger, you pointed to it correctly. This is not an issue that is brand new for Canada. It’s one that we’ve been facing for quite some time. The reason we wrote this report, however, is to highlight the fact that we’re sort of in this moment in time right now, with our relationship with the U.S. deteriorating and us trying to diversify our trading partners, to highlight the fact that we are still not really all that competitive. Our productivity growth is quite low and has been for a few years now. So, banging this drum about wanting to raise this issue around competitiveness, that was the goal of this. And in the report, we highlight the fact that our personal tax rates — relatively high-income earners face extremely high marginal tax rates — in combination with a business tax architecture that can often drive entrepreneurs and business owners to pursue tax-planning initiatives to try and lower that rate. All that leads to an inefficient allocation of resources, low productivity growth and the risk that we’re obviously highlighting here: the risk that our high-skilled talent leaves the country for better opportunities offshore. ROGER: All right, let’s talk about the tax. There’s probably more than just tax and competitiveness, but let’s talk about that. How different is it? How much of an advantage do the Americans offer when it comes to saving money? FRANCIS: Yeah, I mean, there are sort of two points to this here. One is just the actual tax rate and when it hits. So, if you compare Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, the highest marginal tax rate rises above 50 per cent. In Alberta, it’s 48 per cent, but they all hit at that top federal income tax...

Canada losing top talent as workers head to the U.S.

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