Yahoo Finance CEO will relocate employees to Vancouver if they’re worried about a Trump presidency
As the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency became more and more likely on the eve of the election, many U.S. citizens were so concerned that they flooded the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website, causing it to crash.
And now that possibility has become reality, the head of a Philadelphia-based tech company is offering his employees the chance to help make their escape to Canada by relocating them to the firm’s Vancouver offices.
Darren Hill, the CEO of WebLinc and a registered Republican, told CBC’s “As it Happens” that workers will be given the opportunity to work at the Canadian offices for stints of less than six months, which he said is a pretty simple process.
Or, if they’re looking to permanently relocate, WebLinc’s immigration attorney will help them.
“We wanted to give the employees a pass if they felt uncomfortable in the United States,” Hill told “As it Happens.”
“That they could get out and still stay employed at a company they love – they don’t need to live in fear of their families being deported, or anything else.”
Hill said the WebLinc has people among their staff whose family members are undocumented workers and are concerned about Trump’s promise to deport two to three million who he says have criminal records, following his inauguration next January.
Vox called three million a “sheer Trumpian exaggeration” and added that it is likely that there are fewer than 1.9 million “removable criminal aliens.”
However, Trump has also promised to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.
In total, Hill estimated that 10 per cent of his staff has expressed interest in relocating to the company’s Vancouver offices, which currently employ about 20 people, but “everyone” is uncomfortable with the thought of a Trump White House.
“I have heard from many employees — some that are actually fearful and uncomfortable, some that are just angry. Some employees have made almost a definite future plan of relocating, but most … have leases or own homes or whatever, so they’re going to take some time,” he said.
“But we wanted to give the employees a pass, if they felt uncomfortable in the United States — that they could get out and still stay employed at a company they love. They don’t need to live in fear of their families being deported or anything else.”
WebLinc acquired the Vancouver location earlier this year when they purchased a local software company called Orderbot.
While Hill has no desire to leave his home, he said if Trump goes ahead with plans to deport undocumented immigrants and crack down on LGBTQ rights then he said he may be forced to leave and predicted that other high-skilled and well-educated workers will flee north of the border.
“If all of the sudden we’re deporting 11 million people, putting people in temporary deportation camps and creating new laws to make sure gay rights are reversed, then I think there will be a ‘brain drain,'” he said.
“I may be in that as well. I have no plans in the short-term. I want to stay here. I love the United States. However, if it becomes the country that I don’t think it is — if it becomes a country that isn’t open and friendly to all types of people — then I think there will be an absolute ‘brain drain.'”
