Terry Newman: Tech exec pitches Liberal convention on $500K exit tax for educated Canadians

MONTREAL — Are you a Canadian considering improving your situation after graduating by moving abroad for better, higher paying opportunities? A guest speaker at the federal Liberal party convention on Friday just suggested that, in order to defeat Canada’s brain-drain problem, our best and brightest either stay put or cough up half a million dollars, what he suggests is the cost of their taxpayer-subsidized education, before they can pursue opportunities outside of Canada.

Ironically, the special guest who made this suggestion during the Building a Stronger, More Competitive Canadian Economy panel which also featured federal ministers Mélanie Joly, Rechie Valdez, and Lena Metlege Diab, is a Canadian who left Canada for better opportunities himself.

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Patrick Pichette was born and educated in Montreal and left Canada for work in the U.S. accepting a role as senior vice president and CFO of Google in California in 2008. He now lives in London, U.K., holds a Canadian passport and is a partner at Inovia Capital.

Inovia Capital says Pichette paid Canadian taxes continuously from 1989 to 2008 and paid an exit tax on all his assets at the time. Pichette currently pays both Canadian and U.K. taxes.

Pichette thinks today’s young Canadians should stay put, or cough up $500,000 if they want to leave.

Pointing to himself and then the crowd, Pichette says, “We as Canadians, have subsidized my education to the tune of… half a million,” he told the captive audience, warming up to the idea Ottawa should restrict basic freedoms.

You see, the Americans’ TN visa program for Canadians and Mexicans created under NAFTA is simply too affordable and accessible. Pichette detailed the ease of using the program:

“In Canada, the minute you have your degree, if it’s a professional degree, there’s something in Canada… it’s called the TN program. So, Microsoft, I finished from University of Waterloo with my computer degree, Microsoft phones me, offers me a job, 300 grand a year, right, all I have to do is show up at the border, apply for a TN visa, right, and I get this three-year, like no questions asked, it costs 30 bucks,” he told the crowd.

He later clarified through a spokesperson he was discussing a potential example, rather than his own personal history.

Pichette laid out the cost of the brain drain of Canada’s talent and gave his recommendation for a cure:

“30,000 TN go to the U.S. every year. You want to save yourself five, ten billion dollars. Shut the TN program. Keep them in Canada, or make them pay their half a million so that if they leave, I’m OK with that,” said Pichette, who now lives in London.

Pichette then suggested that these students, our best and brightest, were a drain on our economy: “You want to go to the U.S.? Give me back my money. Like my dad, my mom — you all work every day to offer them their education. You can’t let five billion or ten billion a year of your hard-earned cash (go) so that Microsoft can get smarter,” he said.