Meta’s announcement in late March that it was putting down roots in Toronto with plans to hire 2,500 new workers in the city and across Canada was largely met with fanfare from politicians.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who announced the jobs himself at a press conference, touted the move as a boon for homegrown Canadian tech talent. “Our tech talent no longer has to look elsewhere to pursue their careers,” he said at Meta’s announcement.
Ford’s economic development minister, Vic Fedeli, said in a statement the move will “strengthen the province’s innovation sector.” But for the heads of Canadian companies watching the news of another U.S.
tech giant putting more “high-paying” jobs into the pipeline, dreams of scaling up their own firms just became that much dimmer.