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Canadian Economic Incentives - 6/5/14

If you are trying to grow a technology firm, you might tend to focus on potential locations like Silicon Valley, North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Maryland’s I-270 Corridor, Austin, Texas, the suburbs of Boston or the side streets of New York.  Here’s another possibility – Canada.  The Wall Street Journal reports that Canada is offering massive economic incentives to technology companies, in one case paying nearly 80 percent of the cost of engineers for a firm working on a new kind of wearable technology. 

Last year, Cisco signed an agreement with the government of Ontario pledging up to $4 billion in investment over the next decade in exchange for $220 million in incentives.  Today, seven of the 10 largest technology companies in the world maintain outposts in Canada, including Google, Siemens and IBM.  But those are big companies.  If you’re a startup, there are plenty of incentives, but there’s also s a catch.  To receive all potential benefits, you have to become Canadian sort of.  Your company must be majority controlled residents of Canada.  Otherwise, companies are only eligible for portions of available economic development incentives.

Anirban Basu, Chariman Chief Executive Officer of Sage Policy Group (SPG), is one of the Mid-Atlantic region's leading economic consultants. Prior to founding SPG he was Chairman and CEO of Optimal Solutions Group, a company he co-founded and which continues to operate. Anirban has also served as Director of Applied Economics and Senior Economist for RESI, where he used his extensive knowledge of the Mid-Atlantic region to support numerous clients in their strategic decision-making processes. Clients have included the Maryland Department of Transportation, St. Paul Companies, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Players Committee and the Martin O'Malley mayoral campaign.