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Comment by Tiktaalik | Hacker News Reader

With salaries and housing prices as they are in Vancouver, the case to stay on the Canadian side of the border instead of leaving for Seattle is awfully weak.

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I'm hoping Victoria turns into an active startup scene soon. I want to move west for proximity to Seattle/SF but Vancouver's cost of living was a big turn off. $2k/m in Toronto goes a very long way compared to most big cities (thank you liberal municipal building policy!) where I'm not sure it's worth the trade off.

Not having to deal with months of winter (I don't mind BC's rain) and a 1-2hr ferry to Seattle/Vancouver does sound alluring though.

Victoria has come a long way in the last couple years. We do have a small startup scene that's grown over the last few years.

You should check it out :D

Victoria is much more affordable than Vancouver (although rentals are currently tight), and has less summer rain (rain shadow from the Olympic mountains).

See https://github.com/sendwithus/vic-startup-jobs for local startup jobs.

It could be considered more of a Salish Sea triangle for startups, with Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle all being close and each having advantages and disadvantages.

Healthcare costs are lower and more predictable in Canada for employees and employers alike.

This is particularly important for a couple having kids. Also Canada guarantees a year of mandatory* family leave at partial salary split between both parents.

If you're gonna pay taxes, might as well pay them for good benefits.

edit: *clarification: it's mandatory to allow leave, not mandatory to take it. But most people take most of it.

>Also Canada guarantees a year of mandatory family leave at partial salary split between both parents.

This isn't good for startups.

How is barely paying anything for healthcare not good?

Please explain to me why the ability to choose what parent gets to raise their child for the first year so the other can persue their executive (or whatever) career while the government pays for it is a "harm" to your business?

> Healthcare costs are lower and more predictable

This is good for startups.

The parental benefit payout is capped at C$528/week before tax. That's nothing to sneeze at, but with housing expenses in Vancouver, it's similar to unpaid leave in Seattle.

My employer tops up the government benefit to 80% (I think) of salary, conditional on working here at least 2 years after returning.

And even without an employer top-up, the right to keep your job for a year is very valuable.

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