I'm going to continue.
After that study, we also spent a lot of time talking to founders to try to understand why the data is the way it is. Our conversations with founders highlighted that they're leaving Canada because of lifestyle, taxation and talent. It's those three things.
Building in Canada was a lifestyle decision. They could get the best of both worlds. In exchange for higher taxes and regulations, they could build and live in Canada and benefit from our health care, education, housing affordability and low crime while serving the large U.S. market next door.
These founders now believe that our lifestyle advantage has eroded. In the last decade, housing costs have risen over 70% in most major cities, while crime has increased dramatically. Car thefts are up 250% and, this year alone, violent crime is up 50%. There's a shortage of family doctors, while wait times for common surgeries have doubled.
Regarding taxation, Canadians pay 53.5% income tax over $235,000 in earnings and 26.5% in capital gains after the recent government rollback, whereas in the U.S., the top tax rate kicks in at $852,000 Canadian in earnings, with no capital gains on the first $21 million in profits. That's what we're competing with. If you move to the U.S. and put your start-up there, you start under something called the QSBS, which is part of the big, beautiful bill. You start that company and the first $21 million in gains has no capital gains.
On talent, we used to issue visas for skilled foreign workers in a few months; it can now take upwards of four years, which is slowing down access to talent. We need bold action to encourage more high-performing businesses and graduates to start and stay in Canada. Patriotism alone will not get them there and keep them here.
We have a few recommendations to follow on the others.
The first is to incentivize start-up formation. Let's look at the U.S. and consider following its lead by coming up with a Canadian version of the QSBS, where we eliminate capital gains for tech start-ups. Let's allow immediate deductibility for Canadians if they invest in Canadian start-ups. Let's accelerate visa issuance and speed for skilled foreign workers.
The second is to incentivize buying Canadian products. Ways to do this are through immediate deductibility for businesses to buy Canadian technology and government procurement of winning Canadian solutions.
The third is to get more leverage out of existing programs. Ways to look at this are through providing a tax credit for businesses based on their increased investment in R and D; using successful founders and investors to improve SR and ED programs; and providing incentives for top graduates to stay in Canada.
We need a shock to the system. If nothing changes, we risk losing not just a generation of founders, but the capital, IP and prosperity they would have created here.
Thank you.