I live in Vancouver, can confirm. Maybe after a significant liquidity event or two pumps some capital into the local ecosystem, but at present there are few (if any) world class tech companies here and despite the incredibly high and fast rising cost of living, wages are actually the lowest of any major Canadian city. Sure its a desirable place to live, but few world class talents are going to relocate here to work for second or third tier companies, for 50% less than they'd make in other markets, when a 30% more of their salary will be going to housing costs. Vancouver is a real-estate city, not a tech city and likely always will be.

With the relatively low wages in Vancouver, it seems strange that more companies aren't setting up offices here to take advantage of that.

This is all the more strange if the infographic at the end of this article is correct:

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/how-migration-wars-i...

ie. it appears that Vancouver and Toronto have very high quality tech talent but extremely low labour cost. I'm sure much of this is due to the exchange rate. But no matter the reason, it sounds like companies could find a competitive edge by setting up in Canada.

Vancouver is still significantly cheaper than the Bay Area, you can get a studio for less than 1000$USD / month.

Also it is in Canada. A huge draw of the Bay Area is its excellent weather. A huge detriment to living in Canada is its horrible weather.