STATISTICS Canada’s
unwavering take on the
brain drain is nicely cap-
tured in the title of its
latest study: Brain drain
and Brain Gain: The

: Migration of Knowledge
Workers from and to
Canada.

Tn this, the national nunt-
ber cruncher remains trac to
its mandate, managing by
turns to give a cursory nad to
the departing cream of the
crop while framing the exodus
as part of the natural move-
ment of the work force.

Precisely how docs
StatsCan set about minimizing
the brain drain, or framing i it
as a “far more complex” issuc,
to use the exact words? Well, ir
whips up a frenzy of compar-
isons, yet all the while its
authors manage to steer clear
fron: too many jarring juxta-
positions of like with like.

Ultimately, the article finds
the influx of immigrants an
adequate makeweight for the
nominal outgoing trickle. ‘The

', North American Free Trade
“ Agreement has made it possi-
ble for Canadians with the
designated skills to work in the
U.S. indefinitely on an annual-
ly renewable visa, The TNe]
"visa, as it is known, is available
/ to Canadians right’ away,
1 "whereas the nuniber of f perma-
ment visas is capped anntiaily.

© It seems sill then, for the
agency to infer too much’
about, the brain drain trom the
_ fate of “conversions” from, :
temporary to ‘permiaient resi-
“dency status. The simple fact,

about which StatsCan is muin, ‘

is that NAETA visas are there.
for the picking, and permanent

conmntent

Visas are not,

‘Fo further deduce anything
about the intentions of chose
who make use of the NAFTA
visa is misleading, Still, the faet
StatsCan has finally and belat-
edly begun to tally NAFTA-
generated visas in assessing the
brain drain, is something, for
which to give thanks.

While it graces us with a
profile of the leavers (12% of

Canadian PhD graduates live
in the U.S.), StatsCan, is care-
fil to proceed with the mis-
sion of debunking the tax
“myth.”

“Among those who move
tothe U.S, far work-related
reasons,” write the authors,
“the most common reasons
cited included greater availabil-
ity of jobs and higher pays”
not taxes,

Statisticians know all too
well that people, Canadians
especi ially, will tend to pive
responses that are socially
desiraite. Could this be an
answer to one of those Cleve erly
-Worded questions that bank
‘on Canadians not wanting to
admit they flee duc to govern:

~“ment’s theft of their incomes?

Or maybe the Canman
_ does not believe thar, just as
“higher pay” in the’ US. pres
supposes payment ina
stronger currency, so docs it.
subsume 3 a lower tax. After all,

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when people alk ofa “higher
pay” they mean being able to
keep more of their earnings,
which translates invanialdy into
submitting to tess formas of
government pelf.

Unlike the Canadian gov-
ermment and its bean-coun-
ters, documentary producer
Haut Kemp of Stornoway
Vroductions ints managed to
capture the calibre, nor count,
of the departing individuals,

His documentary Canadir's
Brain Draw was televised ear
lier this year. “The film is ani
mated by the vin and verve of
Canadians like Sheila Spence, a
graduate of the Harvard
Business School and already a
thriving force on Wall Street.
Or by the soulfud Dr. Michele
Donato, a young bone mar-
row trasplant specialist in
"Houston, Texas. There is the
acerbie dynamo, Chris ‘Taylor,
president of a high tech cor
pany, who shed the shackles of
the Canadian tax regime, and
is now creating prosperity in
Washington State. There are
many more.

The documentary’s weak-
ness fies in dignifying the cypi-
cal coflectivist and interven.
tionist Canadian solutions to
what are probleins of individ-
ual fiberty, The push factors in
the brain drain are simply
. given short shrift.

Unchallenged goes the
convenient claim of SFU's

Don PeVorete that Canada is
powerless to stem the tide
against the devouring and
beckoning US. ceonony.

Dr. DeVoretz has recently
offered up “tree” chill care as
a panacea for the lass of ur
minds, sta speak, this being
yet another collectivist pro-
gram that rests largely on seiz-
ing and redistributing the
wealth of high-income carners.

Untortunately, until
Canada stops leeching the
Meblood of her best and
brightest, those who seck
more rather than less liberty
will fee. Which is precisely
what my own spouse has
done.

Having immigrated to
Canada with his PAD in elee-
trical engineering, his patents,
his accomplishments as a ree-
ognized musician, and his
hopes, he soon discovered that
half of his income would be
seized by the tayman.

This meant that for the
daration of six months of
every year he would be work-
ing lor government.

The pull factors norwith-
stinding, bad Canada rot
caged him and robbed him
lind, he would stil be here.

My husband’s Vancouver
position remains untilled,
which hegs the question:
where is the gain to match this
drain?

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