By: Murray G. Dobbin

  One of the favourite myths of Canadians pushing tax cuts is the so-called "brain drain". The premise is simple - the tax grass is so much greener over the US border that there is a flood of people heading there to escape Canada's tax system. This is, say the brain drainers, especially true of highly educated people - especially high tech workers.
 

The fact is there is no brain drain. Statistics Canada, the only agency that actually collects reliable numbers on this issue, reveals that Canada enjoys a substantial brain gain.

  As with so many of the tax-cutters arguments, this one cannot stand even modest scrutiny. The fact is there is no brain drain. Statistics Canada, the only agency that actually collects reliable numbers on this issue (as opposed to selective anecdotes), reveals that Canada enjoys a substantial brain gain. Between 1990 and 1996 it is true that Canada experienced an average outflow of about 8,000 university educated people to the US. But we also witnessed over 32,000 similarly educated immigrants come to Canada from elsewhere.
  As for the high tech sector, the brain drain numbers barely register. In 1996, 148 Canadian computer scientists emigrated to the US, but 113 immigrated from the US here. The net loss? A grand total of 35 brains. The numbers for engineers were also small: 506 emigrants versus 93 immigrants. Natural scientists: 195 lost versus 61 gained, vis a vis the US. The only sector of the economy with a serious net loss overall has been health care and the reasons for this are painfully obvious - devastating cuts to medicare now have governments begging nurses to come back.
 

A study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and ComputerWorld Canada shows that tax level has almost nothing to do with why people emigrate to the US

  What is actually remarkable is that more Canadians don't head for the US. If people were simply selfish individualists, as the tax-cutters imply, many more would - the job opportunities in an economy 12 times the size of ours (and sometimes paying much higher salaries) are significant. In space science alone, NASA spends five times as much per capita as does Canada's space program which has suffered major cutbacks. If this is your field, where do you go if your funding is cut? You go where the jobs are.
  But the tax differential is not the issue for most Canadians. A study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and ComputerWorld Canada shows that the tax level has almost nothing to do with why people emigrate to the US. When high tech workers were asked to list the factors they consider when looking for another job, taxes barely rate at all - coming eighteenth on the list.
  First was whether they were treated with respect by their boss; second, whether management was supportive and effective; third, whether or not they received full health benefits; fourth, whether or not the company paid for training; and fifth, whether the company allowed them to work with the latest technology.
  In other words, virtually all the important reasons for a high tech worker leaving Canada for the US related to factors that the employer had complete control over. Most of those surveyed judged their employers to be poor managers. So it's not surprising that those same employers look around for someone else to blame. And as they are already on record as wanting to "down-size" government social programs and income redistribution, why not blame taxes?