Google announces major Canadian expansion with new offices in Montreal!

Alphabet Inc. plans to expand its footprint in Canada, with the potential to more than triple its workforce in the coming years, the company’s chief financial officer announced in Toronto on Thursday.

Ruth Porat said the expansion would see new offices in Toronto, Montreal and Waterloo; that would give the tech giant enough space for up to 5,000 employees by 2022, a company release noted.

Currently, Alphabet has about 1,500 employees in Canada. It was not clear from Porat’s remarks how quickly Google actually plans to hire, or what factors will dictate whether they add jobs to fill those new offices.

RELATED

• Inside the kill zone: Big Tech makes life miserable for some startups, but others embrace its power
• Sidewalk Labs looking to add Google’s Canadian headquarters into Toronto development
• Waterfront Toronto, Sidewalk Labs strike genial tone ahead of key board vote

Porat did not mention of the smart-city project which is being developed on Toronto’s waterfront by Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs. Google had previously floated the possibility of moving its Canadian headquarters to the development site as part of the deal, and it is unclear how the new office expansion fits into that plan.

A spokeswoman for Sidewalk Labs said that the Google headquarters in the Quayside development is still a possibility.

In addition to the three new offices, Google announced Thursday that it is creating a startup accelerator in Canada, one of 12 around the world. In addition, Porat announced a $2.5 million grant to NPower, which will be used for tech skills training.

Finally, the company also released an economic impact report conducted by Public First, a third-party consulting firm. According to the report, Google is responsible for “$16-$23 billion in economic activity for over 500,000 businesses in Canada.”

In a “fireside chat” with Clearbanc co-founder Michele Romanow, Porat talked mostly about how Google services are supporting startups in Canada.

The visit to Canada comes at a pivotal time for Big Tech in Canada.

Earlier this week, Google reported total revenue of US$134.8 billion from advertising, with the overwhelming majority of that money coming from ads on Google Search and YouTube.

The company does not disclose revenue numbers for Canada specifically, but that could come under close scrutiny soon; during the 2019 election campaign, the Liberal party promised to get tougher on Big Tech and tax foreign companies on revenues derived from the Canadian market.

Moreover, the federal government published a digital charter in 2019, which lays out a roadmap for reforms to Canada’s data and privacy laws this year that could affect Google.

The digital charter includes language about transparency, control and consent to give citizens more power to dictate how their private data is used.

The government is also looking at strengthening the powers of enforcement agencies when it comes to investigating data and privacy issues.

The announcement got a lukewarm reaction from Benjamin Bergen executive director of the Council of Canadian Innovators, which represents Canadian companies in the technology sector.

“We welcome job creation that delivers benefits to all Canadians, however, the overwhelming majority of the jobs that foreign tech multinationals are placing in Canada are in technical fields that already have negative unemployment,” Bergen said.

“Further, these companies are not commercializing technologies from Canada despite our rich direct and indirect public subsidies. The focus of our government and industry leaders needs to be economic and evidence-based: aiming to grow or attract companies who commercialize their technologies globally from Canada to the benefit of all Canadians.”

Porat didn’t address any of those issues directly in her remarks; she spoke mostly about Google’s company history, and what lessons it can teach startup entrepreneurs.

She also spoke about the lessons she learned during her time as an advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department during the 2008 financial crisis, focused on the efforts to save Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and American International Group, Inc..

She said a lot of the worst of the financial crisis could have been prevented with smarter planning and better data, especially when it came to AIG.

“They didn’t have the data and analytics to see it coming,” Porat said.

“And so I’ve said for years since then, you do not drive a car with mud on the windshield, you should not run a company or a country with mud on your windshield.”