{"id":117564,"date":"2017-09-13T05:09:32","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T09:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=117564"},"modified":"2017-09-13T05:09:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T09:09:32","slug":"microsoft-president-is-very-bullish-about-growth-potential-in-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/09\/13\/microsoft-president-is-very-bullish-about-growth-potential-in-vancouver\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft president is “very bullish” about growth potential in Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Microsoft (Photo by Mike Mozart\/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEATTLE \u2014<\/strong> Microsoft is \u201c<\/strong>very bullish\u201d<\/strong> on Vancouver and is lobbying the federal and provincial governments to make increased investments in what it sees as a city with a bright future as a technology hub, the company’s president said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>We have made clear that we think of Vancouver as a second home,\u201d<\/strong> Microsoft president Brad Smith said in an interview at the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference in Seattle.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>We’re growing and I would hope that we’d have continuing opportunities to grow in Vancouver.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Washington-based technology company anticipates growing beyond the 750 jobs it initially expected to create in Vancouver when it opened its Microsoft Canada Excellence Centre in June 2016, he said.<\/p>\n

The centre, now known as Microsoft Canada, currently employs 800 workers across product development, sales and marketing, and retail and office work, said a spokesman.<\/p>\n

Smith said he sees continuing opportunities to grow in the city and doesn’t see a cap to the number of jobs the company could create there.<\/p>\n

He stopped short of saying the company could open a second headquarters in the city, but said \u201c<\/strong>it makes sense\u201d<\/strong> for Vancouver to set it sights on wooing Seattle-based tech giant Amazon.com Inc. to open its proposed second headquarters there.<\/p>\n

The ecommerce giant announced this month that it is seeking to build a second headquarters in North America. Expected to be equal to its Seattle campus, the new headquarters would likely require a US$5 billion investment in construction and up to 50,000 jobs, the company said.<\/p>\n

Smith said only Amazon knows what location will work for its company, but stressed that Vancouver \u201c<\/strong>is a great home for technology and technology companies.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Microsoft president is one of the biggest proponents of the Cascadia Innovation Corridor \u2014<\/strong> an agreement signed by B.C. and Washington state nearly one year ago to grow high-tech industries and strengthen collaboration across the region.<\/p>\n

In May, Microsoft hosted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Microsoft CEO Summit and raised the issue of making an innovation supercluster within Vancouver and B.C.<\/p>\n

The federal government is committing $950 million to a supercluster program that will give funding to up to five industry-led consortia in a wide variety of sectors, including clean technology, and health and biosciences.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I think the reaction from the Ottawa delegation was that they hadn’t expected to travel to Seattle and hear a pitch that was basically sounding like it was coming from the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce,\u201d<\/strong> Smith said.<\/p>\n

He’s also pushing for Canada to help ease transportation between Seattle and Vancouver, hoping regular seaplane service will begin between the two cities next year.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Frankly there was little reason not to have it in place this year,\u201d<\/strong> he said. \u201c<\/strong>I think it’s not unreasonable to say we need to move faster in getting that done.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Longer-term, he wants to see a high-speed rail system between Vancouver and Seattle. Washington state has budgeted funds for a feasibility study and Microsoft has donated US$50,000 toward the study.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>We’re hopeful that there will now be some participation in that on the B.C. and Canadian side of the border.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE \u2014 Microsoft is \u201cvery bullish\u201d on Vancouver and is lobbying the federal and provincial governments to make increased investments …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":108261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[23735,23736,1604],"class_list":["post-117564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-bullish","tag-growth-potential","tag-microsoft","mauthors-aleksandra-sagan","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}