Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi made a quick trip to the West Coast Thursday to pitch Vancouver high-tech companies and talent on relocating to Calgary.
“We are actually bringing customers to Vancouver tech companies. Bringing big Calgary companies here to say ‘Hey we have some problems do you have some solutions?'” he said Thursday. “I would love to build more links between Calgary and Vancouver in that way and the other one is we are here to steal your children.”
Nenshi said Calgary has plenty to offer and the cost of living is much cheaper than Vancouver.
“And there is really two pitches here. Pitch number one is if you are excited about building something, not just your own business but also building a new tech ecosystem,” he said. “Number two is in a place with a super high quality of life. We were just ranked by the Economist as the best city in North America in which to live, just ahead of Vancouver.”
However, Nenshi’s presence did nothing to ease the tension that already exists over pipelines with B.C Premier John Horgan.
“If the mayor of Calgary wants to come and poach people I think that speaks to a lack of an economic development strategy at home,” Horgan said.