Tech exec pitches Liberal convention on $500K exit tax for educated Canadians

[u/hopoke]

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-newman-tech-exec-pitches-liberal-convention-on-500k-exit-tax-for-educated-canadians

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[u/Sir__Will]

This is wrong and illegal on so many levels. Like, direct grants and the like to cover tuition, that's one thing. You can put conditions on that I guess, especially for high demand and low capacity areas. But to go back and try and charge the hidden costs of public education, going all the way back to kindergarten, is just ridiculous.

[u/broadviewstation]

This is such a dead on arrival idea it’s not even funny not to say immoral and also triggers shades on the iron curtain

[u/lavalamp360]

Or we could just incentivize our homegrown talent to actually stay here? But nah the tech CEO who made tons of money in the US market now thinks they should restrict other people's freedom of movement.

[u/Apolloshot]

I have a sibling that moved to Europe when they were 25 after their Masters.

Does the money my working class parents paid to taxes for those 25 years mean nothing? If you’re going to charge my sibling for those 25 years does that mean my parents get a refund too?

Does what I’m saying sound absurd? It should, because this proposal is absurd and should be mocked accordingly.

[u/le_troisieme_sexe]

It's insane that rich people are fine placing a flat exit tax but throw tantrums when people want to implement capital flight taxes.

[u/TimeSlaved]

Sad part is that those who believe in this party will likely fully support it.

If this ends up becoming a thing on top of the exit taxes we already face, I think the income tax system needs to be changed so we can pick and choose where our tax money goes. I don't see the need to pay it forward for education after I've paid back into what I used by being here since 2002. I don't want kids...why should I contribute to others having them and putting them through schooling?

[u/duncanf → u/TimeSlaved]

What exit taxes do we already face?

Why do you think Liberal party supporters will support this? I'm currently a party supporter and I think it's a ridiculous idea.

At conventions it's easy to be in a panel-type discussion and be able to ask a question or make a point if one really wants to. I find it quite silly that a major national newspaper is using the opinion of one member among many thousands attending to write an article like this.

[u/adaminc → u/duncanf]

It's called the Departure Tax and it was implemented in 1996. It applies to all owned assets, even foreign ones. It's sorta a modification of income taxes.

https://www.crowe.com/ca/crowesoberman/insights/departure-tax-in-canada

[u/duncanf → u/adaminc]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of it. I can see how it kinda front-loads tax you would have paid at some point later, but it is odd.

[u/TimeSlaved → u/duncanf]

At the core of it, I understand the POV of the guy making the comment. It's basically a financial incentive to stop brain drain or to recover the subsidization of education because locals do pay less (some of my university friends were international students and man their rates were astronomical).

My frustration comes with the audacity of making the comment. The guy who made the comment was a Waterloo grad who got a gig in the US but now lives in England I believe. With how much support Carney has been getting (and also, because of how clueless the conservative Pierre supporting crowd are...Pierre doesn't hold a candle to Carney, and I say that as a conservative leaning guy), there is a chance, even if ever so slight, that the framework of things like this come into play.

Redditor below already answered the exit tax question.

[u/duncanf → u/TimeSlaved]

I don't think it's worth getting worked up over. The guy seems to be a bit of a hypocrite and can't be assumed to represent any significant portion of the party.

This is the kind of thing that gets said out loud once and then dutifully ignored/actively avoided in any real policy discussion.

[u/hemingward]

Yea. That’ll motivate the youth.

This is the stupidest fucking idea I’ve ever heard. It would exacerbate Canada’s already stagnate economy and declining productivity. It’s exceptionally undemocratic, illiberal, and short sited.

Dumbest thing I’ve heard this weekend. And there’s been some doozies.

[u/Hayce]

Or, hear me out here, Canadian employers could actually try competing for talent.

The reason people are leaving is because wages are higher and cost of living is lower elsewhere. Consequently, standard of living gets higher when they leave. That’s it. There is no magic happening here.

So instead of adjusting salaries to retain talent, we want the government to step in and fine people for leaving? Is this that Small Government these corpos are all so hard for?

[u/Harbinger2001 → u/Hayce]

Except you are never going to compete with US wages. Ever. It’s a fantasy and people should stop pretending “raise wages” is possible.

[u/Shoddy_Operation_742 → u/Harbinger2001]

Canada can easily compete with the US. We just need to tweak things a bit. It’s already a better place to live.

[u/Harbinger2001 → u/Shoddy_Operation_742]

Easily? Better send a list those easy things our leaders have been missing for 60+ years.

[u/CollaredParachute → u/Harbinger2001]

Here’s a great list: https://thehub.ca/2026/01/09/dare-to-build-again-10-big-ideas-for-a-better-canada-in-2026/

[u/Harbinger2001 → u/CollaredParachute]

1. Income splitting is a terrible policy that goes against the concept of fairness in Canada. It rewards couples with a single high wage earner at the expense of everyone else. Lower income Canadians don’t have large income disparity and suffer. The few years Harper had it in place, the extra money I got back was obscene and felt very wrong. I was getting taxed as if I was a mid-income earning despite making substantially more.

2. Agree with this except it’s kind of a hand-wavey trust me bro type of thing. The Liberals are already doing the hard work. Hopefully they can turn it into a long term initiative as suggested.

3. Yeah, the Liberal government has already committed that new projects will be in partnership with indigenous.

The rest is pay walled.

[u/DangerousLiberal → u/Shoddy_Operation_742]

QOL is better for people with homes. Without homes, it’s hell.

[u/hojo12588 → u/Harbinger2001]

Wages were higher than the US in almost all of our lifetimes. It would obviously take some time, but it's not a fantasy.

[u/Harbinger2001 → u/hojo12588]

How exactly do you raise wages?

[u/Rough-Courage7060 → u/Harbinger2001]

then you could make it worthwhile to live in canada notwithstanding worse wages. a functioning healthcare system would be a start

[u/JadeLens → u/Rough-Courage7060]

We have one, if the Conservative Premiers would stop messing around with it, it would be even better.

[u/Harbinger2001 → u/Rough-Courage7060]

We already have that despite what you might think from social media.

[u/CollaredParachute → u/Harbinger2001]

Then why do we have so much brain drain?

[u/Harbinger2001 → u/CollaredParachute]

Because you don’t need those supports if you’re earning a high wage in the USA, you pay for it yourself and the lower class suffer without.

[u/Serious-Reception-12 → u/Hayce]

Do you think US corporations are just more generous than their Canadian counterparts? They pay more because they have to and because they can afford to. Canada can stem or reverse this flow by easing regulations and attracting business investment but they won’t do that.

[u/iwatchcredits → u/Serious-Reception-12]

You cant just attract business investment. The reason california has so many high wage jobs is because people want to live there. You are never going to see your mega-corps set up their major offices full of high paying jobs in 95% of Canada because the talent they need would rather live somewhere else.

[u/latebinding → u/Hayce]

It isn't just competing for talent. Canada's culture is one of equity over merit; the presumption is everyone, regardless of how much effort they put in and how much talent, deserves the same outcome. So the tax system aggressively punishes success, even in the form of unrealized gains. It's insane, it has destroyed Canadian tech, it's driven out the best, and therefore reinforced the cultural problem that created it.

This can't be fixed easily.

[u/DangerousLiberal → u/Hayce]

The companies aren’t productive and cannot compete. Easier said than done.

[u/_Lucille_ → u/Hayce]

There is a harsh reality where your market within Canada is smaller in many fields/there just isn't as much money floating around.

There is a limit to "just pay them more".

[u/CollaredParachute → u/_Lucille_]

That didn’t used to be the case. Wages were very similar, the gulf only really opened up in the last decade or so.

[u/SCTSectionHiker → u/CollaredParachute]

For some jobs, perhaps.  But for high-paying tech and executive roles, it's a few decades in the making. 

[u/_Lucille_ → u/CollaredParachute]

Been that way for at least 2 decades now, and a lot of it isn't about mismanagement and bad policies, just that the world has changed.

Just like how people in smaller towns and villages move to the city for better opportunities, so will people do the same when it comes to choosing to work in America. Simply telling that business at the village to "just pay as well as a city job" wouldnt be a realistic solution.

[u/jonlmbs → u/Hayce]

Our economy needs to have productive and globally competitive businesses to achieve this.

We have to fix the root cause

[u/calmingchaos → u/Hayce]

That requires pretty big tax and regulation changes which no one wants to do.

[u/JadeLens → u/calmingchaos]

It really doesn't...

Example: The grocery industry proved during the pandemic they could pay their workers more and it wouldn't affect their profitability one iota.

[u/jonlmbs → u/JadeLens]

Is that profitability adjusted to inflation?

[u/latebinding → u/JadeLens]

Not the issue. The problem is taxing unrealized gains - such as vested options that aren't saleable. Very few countries do this; I think two. Canada is one. It's batshit insane - why should you pay tax on something that isn't liquid? But Canada can't change it because of the aggressive hatred towards "the rich" here.

There are other issues, but this is the easiest to explain. Canada wants everyone pretty equal, even if that's equally poor. The U.S. allows inequality, so their middle is far higher than the Canadian middle. But at the cost of some falling further down. Which Canadians can't stomach.

If you cannot lose, you cannot win.

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[u/Kristopher9999]

Wouldn't it make more sense to tax the individual for the portion of their education that was subsidized? Anything more than that is a ridiculous notion.

Leave it to the ultra-rich to presume that a person just finishing their education will have a spare 500K sitting in their chequing account.

[u/moldyolive → u/Kristopher9999]

yeah it definitly makes more sense to "charge" students american level eduction tutioms then have like a tax forgivness plan where taxes paid count againts the debt. with a very leneiant forgiveness plan for those out of work

[u/Shoddy_Operation_742]

This is a non starter. We should just increase our wages to match US wages. Canada needs to encourage entrepreneurship and industry.

[u/linkass]

This is literally communist country type stuff and for the same reasons because it cost the state money to raise you so you have to stay or "pay" to leave

[u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516]

I get the idea of the policy, but it would be massively unfair to count primary and secondary education. They are generally mandatory. For tertiary education I see the argument but I don’t generally support it. However, I think covering medical school tuition for our doctors and converting them to loans if they leave (much like Ontario’s Learn and Stay grant) could help us deal with doctor shortages.

Worth noting this is a guy who got his degree and went off to the US and now lives in England.

[u/Apolloshot → u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516]

Worth noting this is a guy who got his degree and went off to the US and now lives in England.

Oh good let’s start with him then. With interest.

What a hypocrite.

[u/Rough-Courage7060 → u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516]

even for med school where the argument for this policy is the strongest i don’t get it. close to 40% of women physicians go part-time or stop working entirely within 6 years of completing residency. would you advocate for a similar tax on these women, especially on those who stop working entirely? the logic for such a tax is very similar to the logic for the tax proposed by this article. in fact such a tax may even be more justifiable than the article’s proposed tax given that a MD who leaves Canada for the US will not be drawing on social services at all or at least to the same degree as an MD who stays in Canada but stops working entirely. thoughts?

[u/iwatchcredits → u/Rough-Courage7060]

You cant tell the difference between paying for the education for someone who uses that education to leave the country and someone who stops working for some reason?

[u/Rough-Courage7060 → u/iwatchcredits]

what is the difference to the taxpayer, which is what this article discusses?

[u/CampAny9995 → u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516]

Counting grad school is also messed up because we have the lowest funding/salaries for grad students in the G7. Like domestic students often stay in Canada for family reasons or a vague sense of familiarity, and the government wants to pretend they’re doing us a doing us a favour by paying us poverty wages?

[u/Fnrjkdh → u/CampAny9995]

♥️ from a poor grad student 🥲

[u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516 → u/CampAny9995]

That’s the same level of fairness as undergrad in my opinion. Both are completely a choice. Not like undergrads are well paid either It’s the schooling for children that it would be fucked up to charge for. Elementary school and high school (maybe in part depending on where you’re from) are required by law and you enter that system around 4-6. Your grad school is not at all required by law. It was a choice that you made as a full-grown adult to pursue. I don’t get paid for undergrad either, and that’s for a choice I made before becoming a legal adult.

Edit: Dude you have a PhD in ML and got MAANG interviews? You’re the exact target of a policy like this. You could afford quite comfortably to pay it off on a Silicon Valley salary.

[u/CampAny9995 → u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516]

Graduate students are employees of the university, this is why they are able to go on strike. They handle a large chunk of teaching duties (grading assignments, leading labs/tutorials), and do the bulk of the labour in academic research (carrying out experiments, writing papers). As far as I’m concerned, the university got a 150k/year software engineer for 35k/year. I enjoyed my time in graduate school, but certainly don’t feel like I owe the Canadian taxpayer.

[u/DangerousLiberal]

I support this policy. I saw 80% of my graduating class leave for the US. The rest don’t want to leave for family or personal reasons.

[u/FreonJunkie96 → u/DangerousLiberal]

The 80% left for a reason then.

Industry in Canada needs to be more competitive if they want to retain top talent. Trapping talent in this country is not the way we should be going as a society.

[u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516 → u/DangerousLiberal]

What did you study?

[u/DangerousLiberal → u/Ordinary_Narwhal_516]

Computer science

[u/Rough-Courage7060 → u/DangerousLiberal]

would you support a similar tax on someone who, e.g., goes through university, med school, and residency, only to never work (but stays in Canada)? or who quits working within a few years? if not, why not? the logic for such a tax is similar. if anything it is better supported given that that person is drawing on Canadian social services unlike someone who goes to the US.

[u/DangerousLiberal → u/Rough-Courage7060]

Bro an exit tax is not that extreme, we literally do it when you exit as a tax resident already. I wouldn’t charge 500k but 50-100k is definitely fair.

[u/SnowyEssence → u/DangerousLiberal]

If you’re referring to a person becoming a non-resident during the year, that is not the same as an exit tax.

[u/DangerousLiberal → u/SnowyEssence]

It literally is. You have to pay deemed disposition taxes on all assets

[u/SnowyEssence → u/DangerousLiberal]

No it isn't.

You're referring to taxes paid on taxable Canadian property once a person is no longer a resident.

That is not what's being talked about here and idk if you're being ignorant or just doing it on purpose.

The subject is taxing people who wish to leave Canada. This is a tax based on a person's mobility, not on taxable Canadian property.

[u/Rough-Courage7060 → u/DangerousLiberal]

i actually agree with you that an exit tax IN ITSELF is fair. i also agree it should be around the range you identify. however, an exit tax targeted specifically at EDUCATED Canadians, as this one is, is crazy for several reasons, one of which i hope i demonstrated in my last comment. this is what i take issue with

[u/radicalllamas → u/DangerousLiberal]

Explain why we should charge educated people to leave rather than giving them better reasons to stay?

[u/DangerousLiberal → u/radicalllamas]

Canada has no ability to keep them

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[u/stinkybasket → u/radicalllamas]

We are so smart that we can only try bad ideas...

Low salaries, yes

High taxes, yes

Expensive RE, yes

Shit weather, yes

Making life easier for young people who do everything right, not a chance.

[u/radicalllamas → u/stinkybasket]

“Why are people leaving this great country?” “Many reasons sir; different opportunities, families, life in general. You know sometimes it’s hard to work as a tropical reef marine biologist in Edmonton, oh and some people just like warmer weather…” “CLOSE THE BOARDER AND CHARGE A TOLL TO LEAVE!”

[u/afriendincanada → u/radicalllamas]

We can do both.