Welcome to The Ivy. Today the Daily Business News podcast from business in Vancouver newspaper and the ivy dot com. I'm Tyler Horton. And today we're going to talk all about that talent crunch with regards to how maybe American perceptions of Canadian immigration policy could actually be feeling more growth especially in cities like Vancouver.
We're gonna be joined by Jon Voight Global's Richard Burke discussing all about this new report delving into American perceptions of Canadian immigration policy. Then later on retail insiders CRAIG PATTERSON He breaks down Lululemon is exceptional quarterly financials as well as price hikes going on in groceries. And guys we've got to do this. It is April 1st today as we records are going to have a bit of a rundown of all the big brands that are there.
They've been doing some April Fools joke so far today and whether or not they've been effective. But first let's talk all about immigration.
So talking to any hiring manager here in Vancouver's tech sector and they'll tell you that the talent crunch is perhaps the biggest barrier that's impeding growth right now. Candidates been looking outward to fill those gaps. But is the message getting out there to other countries. A new report from online global it reveals how American perceptions of our immigration policy may influence further growth here at home. Calling in today from Chicago it is Richard Burke. He's CEO
of on voice global. Richard thanks for joining us on the program today. Thank you Tyler for having me. And so before we dive into the numbers and there's some fascinating numbers that you guys have produced here in your latest reports. But can you tell me maybe anecdotally how American professionals maybe perceive your own immigration policies in terms of drawing global talent to fill in some of the gaps that your country's facing right now heavily.
So what we do it on a global is we help employers secure work authorization in any country around the world. And then we make certain they say compliance or we're fortunate where were the biggest players in the United States. And we've with a growing practice in the Qantas we are taught to get a very good view and every year we augment that view by doing a big survey
with Harris Associates. We go up to 400 H.R. professionals but equally between publicly traded and private companies and ask for how all things immigration one of the questions we asked is directly response to what you just asked Tyler. We asked Is the U.S. immigration process getting more difficult or less difficult. And we've asked this question for years
in a row. And in 2016 and 2017 it was pretty evenly split between those employers who felt that the U.S. immigration process was getting more difficult less severe weather almost a tie in 2019 it was the biggest spread ever 47 percent believe the process is getting more difficult which is two and a half times those who feel that the process is becoming less difficult. Only 18 percent said less difficult 47 percent more difficult. And that's the biggest
golf we've seen in the years we've done it. We know why that happened. The U.S. government is making the process much more onerous adding quite a bit of uncertainty in the eyes of employers and that counts for this drove this 2 to 2.5 X spread between internal and external in which we think is making Canada increasingly appealing to U.S. employers.
Well let's get into that because you guys do have the report out and it says that American companies are increasingly targeting Canada's future talent hub based in part on our immigration policies as Canada being perceived quite favorably right now.
Absolutely it is one of our questions was whose immigration policy do you consider to be more favorable. Sixty five percent of employers said Canada. And that is growing the US perception is being friendly is shrinking and we believe
that is very conscious by Canada. We helped a number of companies go into Canada and were increasingly helping Canadian companies procure work authorization into Canada and literally 65 percent find Canada to be more appealing and perhaps more importantly almost an equal number 63 percent Tyler respondents said they are considering expanding into Canada for this very reason. You've
got a much more accommodating immigration policy. You've also got terrific universities throughout Canada most often cited not surprisingly as the Kitchener Waterloo corridor but those two factors are favourable immigration policy and strong academic institutions that are causing well over half of U.S. employers who responded to the survey to consider expanding.
So I'll tell you as a Canadian who grew up in the United States down in the 1990s I don't know if there is that much awareness of Canada at least at the time that I was living there. Do you think that Canada is doing a much better job at getting its out its name out there getting its policies out there that there's a lot more of the people that need to know now what's going on with regards at least immigration policy down in the United States.
They do. They do and they do for a few reasons. One immigration is was President Trump's calling card issues. So the whole issue of immigration has become much more engrained in people's consciousness. And once you start looking at the legal high skilled immigration many people are aware of these Canadian initiatives to increase the population of Canada the immigration to add a aggressive impressive growth to the population via immigration.
Most employers are very much familiar with this. For those two reasons One the topicality of immigration can shoot the challenges in the United States and finding resident born talent and also those affirmative steps that the Canadian government is taking to make Canada hospitable and welcoming place for high skilled talent.
What's fascinating to me though is the American economy is doing quite well right now. You get the sense from a lot of your clients that growth could be stymied to a certain degree. If Americans don't have access to the global talent that it needs to fill in those gaps that can't be matched domestically without a doubt that's what's happening the U.S. government is doing very very well particularly when it comes to unemployment.
We know that the unemployment rate in the States for people with a college degree is to 1 percent. We know there's about seven point three million jobs in the US that are open only six point three million job seekers. We know that there will be about 4 million folks retiring from the workforce this year. That's you know 10000 a day. It's the baby boomers age out. And as a result because of that U.S. employers are saying we want to continue growing but the shortage of qualified talent
is scrimping our growth. Our survey expressly asked questions in about 30 percent of employers said that challenges in hiring talent are causing either delay or the cancellation of projects.
We help represent a very well-known consumer the food and beverage company. They needed to produce bottles plastic bottles to hold their product in plastic bottles are some forms that regards miracles and engineering they have to be liked to have to be durable.
They have to be efficient and economic to produce. They have to meet certain environmental standards there's quite a bit of engineering.
This company could not get sufficient engineers in the United States because of the combination of a tightening immigration policy and an expense in a very difficult job market for employers saying that moving the work to Mexico more often than not the work is moving to Canada.
As companies seek growth and believe that the Canadian immigration landscape is like I said much more hospitable and favourable and I'll tell you as an outsider and let me know if I'm on the right track here.
But I wonder if Canada is in a bit of a unique position in terms of American eyes. If Americans turn to say the United Kingdom for say expanded growth over there it's facing a Brexit situation right now to look to other English speaking countries say Australia New Zealand. They're pretty far away is Canada benefiting much from its cultural position as well as its geographic position to United States to be able to seize on some of that international talent in the United States needs right now.
Very perceptive. There is a cultural advantage that Canada has compared to any other country in the world from the United States perspective.
There is most obviously that manifests in the same language. There is a geographic benefit which candidate feels more so than any. Even Mexico because of your time zone frequency of flight ease of transfer from one board to the other.
And then there's also the political that while you know just today the Trump administration which is talking about shutting off the border with Mexico that that'll give many employers pause about investing into and expanding into Mexico. Relations with Canada are much warmer than they are relative to relations with Mexico so there's a cultural reason a geographic reason and a political reason. And I'd add a fourth reason
Tyler educational those schools. University of Waterloo Vancouver has excellent schools. Toronto Montreal. That is a fourth meaningful driver of the benefits the Canada has rather than anyone else.
Well we're talking a lot about maybe American perceptions right now. But from your own work and unlike global telling me you've been getting into more business with Canada What is your own experience been like working with Save the Canadian study on immigration policy what do you notice kind of the differences between the U.S. and Canada right now.
Personally very very much so a couple of points Tyler. First of all we are experience in the candidate comes in two contexts one is helping us companies who are seeking to grow they use their first country of as Canada for those for reasons we just set. So we get quite a bit of experience. We've helped over a thousand over a thousand cases into Canada. That gives us a unique perspective. We're also seeing increasingly Canadian company of
Canadian companies to grow particularly in the startup scene. The scene in Toronto is very very vibrant as it is in Vancouver. And those companies are increasingly attracting U.S. venture capital. U.S. private equity and as importantly Canadian venture capital and private equity and as they grow. They're saying well you you
envoy have a solution that works very well. You've got experience by virtue of helping companies move into Canada help us grow as well so we're increasingly helping Canadian companies seeking to bring folks into Canada. We're also helping the couple retain and continued search firms whose express model is to take advantage of Canada's Liberal a relatively liberalized immigration policies. And they'll say that Canadians employers we will get for
you high skilled foreign national talent. We will partner with on void to secure the work authorization and you'll be able to quickly and efficiently and skillfully fill your open positions. Interestingly CBRE the big real estate firm did a survey and they found that Toronto added more technology positions last year than the Bay Area Seattle in Washington D.C. combined.
So think of that.
While and I'd like to imagine especially here in Vancouver that we could get some of that runoff effect as we get American companies looking outward seeing where they can fill in some of those gaps and Richard Di. Your company did some really interesting reporting on this and I want to thank you for joining us on the program today.
Well thank you. Coming. You're exactly right about Vancouver. Yeah it in Toronto are we are where we are the most interested in actual proximity to Asia strong Asian connection in Vancouver obviously entertainment is very big to the U.S. going into Vancouver so delighted to be able to join.
And we're out of those winter months so hopefully those Americans will give us a second look as we move from spring and into summer now too.
I can assure you they're looking I can promise you that.
Excellent thanks Richard. That's Richard Burke CEO of Anvil global Stay with us Craig Patterson from retail insider dot com. He joins us next to talk about Lululemon and more. And with us to talk all about the latest news in retail this is gonna be a fun episode because I don't know if you've heard but it is April Fool's today. It's Craig Patterson editor in chief retail insider dot com Craig. Thanks for joining us on the show. Thank you for having me. OK. So I don't think
we want to bury the lead here. It is in fact April 1st 20 19 as we record this and we always expect some brands to get in on the jokes what's popping up to you today.
CRAIG There's some interesting ones in there coming out of Vancouver into Chino sent out a press release that said they were going to be making custom made pajamas from the linings of their suits. And you know I know it was a bit of a joke but when I got the pitch last week and we knew it was gonna be a joke. I actually I was sort of a good idea. Same thing with kidneys that came out with one on clothing basically you know be kind of
technical like the rest of kit nice. And I thought well actually I mean maybe this is a good idea.
It's curious because like whenever these April first jokes happen a lot of people might complain or you know say that it takes a hit on the credibility of these companies. Is that really the case like do these brands ever hurt because maybe there's an improv first choke that doesn't go quite right.
Well in the case of it in the Chino and kitten these definitely not you know I think it was fairly obvious that they were jokes and it certainly made sense. And in fact like I said I think they might have been bad ideas. However you know it's just that one today about the fly festival and you know basically they're saying they're gonna be flying into a festival we know that the festival you know ended in criminal charges fraud and we've heard a lot of news about people
getting stranded but vacation provider. My first thought I just cringe I cringe myself that I thought Oh my God West Jet look you know there is such thing as West Jet vacations. You know I don't know if something just I feel like they just missed the mark with us and you know Calgary based West Jet. They're flying around western Canada and all over the world now. Yeah. I don't know sometimes you gotta be careful what you mock. And I think that there was a little tone deaf.
So however they were the one I got from my condominium Web site based in central Canada. That was pretty amazing it was a dog condominium the prices were absolutely outrageous and made perfect sense for the City of Toronto ten thousand a square foot and I thought Yeah I know this is foreshadowing not a joke.
Yeah I got to feel it over here in Vancouver too. But it's interesting how people love to do stuff for the Pats especially on April 1st. I cover the technology beat at the newspaper and Roku is asking me if I wanted to do like a fake news story which I don't know if we can really do that as journalists. So it had to decline but they were saying hey we're going to have streaming services for pets complete with
a TV remote. Designed for pets as well so I know something about pets that people really cling on to and especially with April 1st Yeah I mean I don't even think it has to be a joke.
These are things that we might actually see down the road to some degree I that we want our pets taking over our TV channels but who knows right.
I mean the future is an interesting one technology wise and I just think about how some of the most popular like youtube channels are essentially like kiddie cams or just people watch cats walk around all day. So that's an interesting one. And Craig my memory is going a little bit. I maybe you can help me out with this but was it WestJet that maybe last year the year before they actually had a good April 1st joke where I think they announce that they're going to rebrand
as Canadian airlines. You know that old defunct airline that we knew so well as the second largest carrier out way back in the day like what I like. That to me was like actually a good funny joke because it made people pause you go look at the Twitter outrage and you kind of see oh some people aren't in and eye and it's like a ridiculous funny sort of joke I mean some people will believe anything.
I mean I think we've seen that with you know the U.S. election and otherwise. But yeah. Know I think there's differing degrees of believability. There's you know some people are more gullible than others.
Well if we are talking about say you mentioned kidneys why don't we talk to one of their not quite a sibling company but a related company from the same founder I Lululemon shares when soaring last week after posting its latest financial results. If you look at their fourth quarter profit it just skyrocketed 82 percent compared to the same period last year. Landing at two hundred and eighteen
million dollars U.S.. The question is is Craig. Where is this big growth coming from at this point in Lululemon history.
It's interesting because it's domestic growth and you know the company is also growing internationally and it's so I mean I don't want to say it surprises me how popular 9/11 is but it seems to have a cult following. I mean it's got a great product but the prices are much higher than a lot of other fashion brands and you know given the strength that we're seeing as the lemon expands globally is to me quite surprising and maybe it's because I'm not their customer. You know I
I've got a few pieces. They were gifts and you know I think certain people were aware a little lemon and apparently a lot of people.
Well the thing that I keep wondering though is they started to master or tuned in to the idea of the sustainable growth as opposed to trying to expand everywhere all at once and facing a lot of troubles there and we saw that say with kidneys for example have they kind of figured out the right formula about how to master growth at this point.
I think so. I mean Lululemon has been quite successful in every market that has expanded into and now I mean if you think about it as long as they're able to maintain their brand popularity they're able to you know saturate at least say the continent for example with stores.
I mean they're very much a direct to consumer brand in terms of you know they do this through Lululemon stores you don't see Lululemon products you know at your local base or whatever you know it's it's very focused which is why they got these higher profits they're not paying a retail middleman to distribute their merchandise but you know I think for brands like Canada Goose and like Lululemon and you know funny enough they're all Canadians that
are you know growing like crazy and have this popularity. This will actually a lot more room for growth for Lululemon which I think is quite tremendous. Maybe I'll buy some stock.
Well at this point you know we've had the new CEO for a number of quarters. You know is it fair for him to begin putting his own stamp on the good results. Is he still just kind of the shepherd for where the company was already going. What's your take right now.
I think it's a little bit of both. I think that the company was on a great trajectory but I think Calvin is a visionary. I mean they were probably brilliant to hire him. He he himself has an image that's quite interesting I think and is also right on brand. And you know I would actually think encourage him to you know add some innovation. I mean don't reinvent the wheel Lululemon obviously is very successful as it is with
its current concept. But you know certain to be a bit experimental I think I'd look to the future perhaps some sort of tack maybe dogs are involved maybe not.
But you know I think that there is room for innovation and in fact you know Chip Wilson the founder I think would very much encourage that.
I think he's always encouraging innovation whether or not you will listen it is another story altogether I know there's been a bit of a rift within the company and you know there's been a few battles there.
Well jumping into something that I think touches everybody those course grocery there's a couple stories that we want to jump on here. The Global Mail they're reporting that there are three major grocers that are in the midst of raising prices. What's behind this increase that's going on right now.
Craig I think it's a combination of factors. It's getting more expensive to operate. You know let's say gas prices for example overall production costs of food and then like a store logistics comes around it which you know I think gas prices would have something to do with that. We are seeing inflation in the country and I think that's starting to be reflected on food. You know there's
also an increased demand. I think it's actually quite a complicated situation but it's not necessarily good for consumers obviously.
Well the thing that I keep wondering though is we have increased pressure on say some of the Canadian incumbent grocers from the likes of C Wal-Mart or Amazon as well. Are the margins getting even thinner at this point for the grocers if they want to stay competitive in this particular market here in Canada.
Yes. And sort of you know certainly groceries that are competing on price you know the margins to be very thin. And you know any competition can be a challenge to that. And we are seeing a lot of interesting grocers coming in that are doing things a bit differently and they're not necessarily competing on price. They're competing in other areas. And you know again this is stock as you know in theory we only eat so much. I mean in theory right.
Sure.
But you know so we would say there is a finite pie and that's actually a good word to use in this case. And you know if we're starting to cut that pie with you know for example zero waste grocery stores which is something that I think is going to be more of a phenomenon than we realize. And you know organic grocery stores specialty grocery stores we're starting to see these popping up across Canada and I think this is a real threat here.
You know Loblaws for example well let's get into that a little bit because a down on Broadway there is
a zero waste grocer that lunch in Vancouver. And I'm wondering what the ultimate goal is in how they're appealing to people just based on what you've seen so far as these kinds of deals expand or not deals with these sorts of business strategies expand across the country I think it's interesting because I mean it's bringing openness to the amount of waste that's produced and required I guess for the packaging and whatnot that we get with our groceries.
So you know I'm thinking I do. I just take down so much recycling of packaging when I buy groceries as Negro where I am. There is a store near me that you know a zero waste. So I end up creating a lot of waste and fortunately that's almost everyone in Canada. So you know in Vancouver now the first zero waste grocery store in the country. Maybe it's not as outlandish as people think. When I when I first heard about it and I thought Oh goodness this isn't going to take that we've seen a few open
across Canada and we're seeing them quite busy. They're getting a lot of press coverage on top of that. So given that we're seeing legislation coming forth from different provinces single trying to ban for example single use plastic bags and you know even single use plastic straws and water bottles perhaps all of this might end up having us shopping to a degree at least in the zero waste space even perhaps a bigger grocery stores. I think it remains to be seen if legislation comes in that this
wallboard can have. You know a lot of bags you know single use bags that you're vegetables into or something like that. I don't know we may see a transition in how we shop.
I'm still going to be wondering how I transport my eggs without a carton like there's got to be something out there that's I will produce zero waste but allow me to get them home without getting cracked right.
Yeah. I don't know. Bring your own carton or something like that. I mean I don't know what the practicality around that is often when I get groceries that's when I get a moment in between meetings or something. So I'm not really carrying around bags and cartons and God only knows what else you would need jars I suppose or serving certain things. So you know again the practicality
around it I don't know. I mean I'd love to see this succeed but you know her certain people you know this is going to be a challenge I mean for some people groceries you know as a real focused effort once a week they drive to their local grocery store and for other people they're doing it almost every day and they're within their neighborhood. So I think as long as those habits can be created even for those shoppers that are you know going constantly to the grocery
store perhaps that's going to reduce waste. I mean it's certainly an admirable concept.
Yeah you know Craig I fall into the latter camp that you're speaking about there for me. I mean I've got three grocery stores that I typically go to. They're typically either between my home and my office or else me and just maybe the community center that I often go to. And I stopped by when I have time I usually don't plan it ahead. I think if there's more pressure let's say there's an all out ban on say plastic bags. I am probably going to have to
do more to plan ahead. I'm just I'm just warning how that's going to ultimately impact a lot of the habits that people have when it comes to doing groceries here in Canada moving forward.
I think habits can be created. I mean we've got habits now that never existed decades ago. You know be a tech use or otherwise. So I think that you know this could translate over to how we shop for groceries.
So I would never underestimate that sort of thing in terms of maybe at some point a company will develop some sort of pressure sales system where we'll have a little package we carry around in a bag and it can deflate to cup create some sort of thing that you can shop with I don't know I mean a lot of smart people out there do open a lot of interesting technology. So I think it remains to be seen but I think once people develop habits that can
keep them. Or at least that's the theory. You know weight loss a challenge for many.
Well I'll just say this that pressure sealed bag you're speaking of some people might confuse that with an April Fool's joke just for today so I will hold off on going is it for their details for now.
And I was being serious. I had of course. Well Craig always a pleasure thanks for joining us on the show. Thank you for having me.
That's Craig Patterson editor in chief at retail insider dot com and that's it for the show today we're gonna be back on Tuesday. For now you can find our archives on Apple podcast and Stitcher. Share your friends lead five stars it's going to help more people find the show. For now I'm Tyler Orton. Thank you for listening.