{"id":36619,"date":"2026-05-08T02:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/36619\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T02:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T02:52:06","slug":"canadian-tech-star-pointclickcare-has-contingency-plan-to-move-to-u-s-if-trade-war-worsens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/36619\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian tech star PointClickCare has contingency plan to move to U.S. if trade war worsens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

PointClickCare CEO Dave Wessinger says the probability of the company moving to the U.S. is low and a ‘worst case scenario’ plan that would come into effect only if needed to protect the interests of the business.Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

One of Canada\u2019s largest homegrown technology companies<\/a>, PointClickCare Technologies Inc., has drawn up a contingency plan to relocate to the United States if the trade war between the two countries escalates to the point that it harms its business.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-company\u2019s co-founders and leaders, chief executive officer Dave Wessinger and brother Mike, the executive chairman, are unabashed champions of Canada\u2019s technology<\/a> sector, overseeing a digital records software giant that sells to more than 30,000 nursing homes, retirement facilities and home health care agencies in the U.S. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the largest employers in Canadian technology, with roughly 1,500 people in Canada and another 1,000 in the U.S., and generates more than US$200-million in operating profit and US$900-million in revenue. PointClickCare generates tens of millions of dollars in corporate taxes.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Canadian companies must think twice before moving to the United States<\/a><\/p>\n

But if it was forced to pick between Canada and the U.S. for its home base, that country would be the U.S., Dave Wessinger said in an interview. That\u2019s a decision he\u2019s been worried the company may have to make, ever since trade tensions between the two countries boiled over last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn effective enterprise risk management, you look at what could possibly happen, and there is a situation where we become very focused on a Buy Canada initiative such that the Americans counter with a Buy American response and we\u2019re caught in the middle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. market accounts for 97 per cent of the Mississauga company\u2019s revenues and \u201cis critical for us to drive the growth we\u2019ve seen,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything that gets in the way of that would challenge our business. That hasn\u2019t been the case to date, but it just takes one pen stroke, one conversation, one retaliatory move. I just have to be prepared for anything that could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Wessinger stressed that\u2019s not something the company had ever considered before last year, nor something he or his brother wanted to do. The company also has outside shareholders \u201cthat we need to make sure we\u2019re delivering a return to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Move to the U.S. to avoid tariffs? These Canadian companies say no way \u2013 we\u2019re expanding at home<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian trade lawyer Barry Appleton said in an interview \u201cit\u2019s not surprising there are Canadian companies trying to figure out if they should stay in Canada\u201d given the prevailing uncertainty in the U.S.-Canada economic and political relationship since the second election of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024, which was followed by his imposition of sweeping tariffs<\/a> on dozens of countries including Canada.<\/p>\n

The state of that relationship will be tested when a joint review begins July 1 into the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, which came into effect during the first Trump administration. Mr. Appleton said he has talked to many companies that have discussed \u201cusually with great detail, the move from Canada to the U.S. as an option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a relocation, he said, would involve PointClickCare reassigning contracts south of the border and moving its headquarters and key functions there. Employment in Canada would fall off over time, \u201cand we become an American company with American employees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wessinger said the probability of such a move was low and a \u201cworst case scenario\u201d plan that would come into effect only if needed to protect the interests of the business. <\/p>\n

Tech founders leaving Canada at accelerating rate, survey finds<\/a><\/p>\n

Dana O\u2019Born, chief strategy officer with the Council of Canadian Innovators, an advocacy group for domestically-based technology companies, said \u201cthis should serve as a stark warning sign for the federal government. If our best, brightest and most successful entrepreneurs are running the numbers to flip the switch and relocate to the U.S., we need to pull all the stops to make sure this does not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Software and other digital products transmitted electronically are exempt from customs, duties, fees or other charges related to trade between Canada and the U.S. But Mr. Trump has eyed trade of digital goods<\/a> for retaliatory action in the past. One of the earliest moves by the Canadian government after the election of Prime Minister Mark Carney last year was to abandon digital services tax that affected U.S. tech giants here. <\/p>\n

Mr. Appleton said just because software hasn\u2019t been subject to tariffs \u201cthat doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t be. There\u2019s nothing to prevent services from having a tariff. We\u2019re not in a game of rules any more.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ottawa-based intellectual property lawyer Natalie Raffoul said \u201cif these trade negotiations don\u2019t go well and we have Buy American provisions, these companies are going to have to flip\u201d to U.S. domiciles. \u201cIt\u2019s extreme, but we\u2019re dealing with tough times, and what concessions are we going to make in exchange?\u201d<\/p>\n

Some observers have raised concerns that the domestic tech sector has been an afterthought for the Carney government, which struck an advisory committee for Canada-U.S. economic relations last month that included no representatives from the digital sector among its initial 24 members (defence technology startup founder Eliot Pence was later added). A report last fall by Canadian venture capital firm Leaders Fund<\/a> showed Canadian-founded companies were increasingly relocating or starting up elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Report co-author Gideon Hayden, who testified before the House of Commons standing committee on industry and technology about the study\u2019s findings, said that despite the troubling trends it uncovered, solving the issue \u201chas not been a top priority\u201d for government. <\/p>\n

GFL to move head office to U.S. to qualify for inclusion in U.S. stock indexes<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Wessinger said the Carney government\u2019s focus on diversifying trade<\/a> and fortifying sovereignty across the economy could have \u201ccascading impacts that I don\u2019t think everyone realizes.\u201d That includes the fact many Canadian tech companies rely heavily on U.S. markets. \u201cShould people decide that our sovereignty is that important when in fact we\u2019re so intertwined in business with the U.S. is not an easy black-or-white decision.\u201d <\/p>\n

John Fragos, press secretary for federal Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne, said in an e-mail: \u201cMore work remains to be done to support sectors and workers in the face of an unpredictable trade environment.\u201d He added the government \u201cis making meaningful progress\u201d with economic measures introduced since it came to power last year.<\/p>\n

Ms. O\u2019Born said: \u201cWe cannot afford to lose the companies, talent, and innovation capacity that are essential to our long-term productivity and prosperity. I really hope we\u2019re not looking back on this in a year and saying we had our chance and we blew it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a report from Marieke Walsh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: PointClickCare CEO Dave Wessinger says the probability of the company moving to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-36619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-world-news","54":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}