Silicon Valley's immigration changes could be great news for Canada.

The U.S. government is making it more difficult for companies to quickly hire talent from other countries, with a cap on expedited visas for highly skilled workers and a pending plan to overhaul the H-1B visa program. Meanwhile, Canada is testing new, speedier visas.

On Monday, the Canadian government started its new program to issue work permits and temporary resident visas in two weeks instead of the usual year.

The 2-year pilot, part of a Global Skills program first announced last year, will be available to "innovative" companies seeking highly skilled workers.

It's the latest attempt by Canada to attract tech business north of the border. It's also experimenting with looser regulations, tax breaks and rebranding. Later this year, Ontario will launch an ad campaign targeting Silicon Valley decision makers and workers.

"It is not for us to criticize the administration. It us for us to recognize an opportunity when we see it," said Brad Duguid, Ontario's Minister of Economic Development and Growth. "The current direction of the administration, which appears to look more inward than outward, is in stark contrast to what we believe is the direction we want to go in."

The Trump administration has said it intends to reform the H-1B visa program to weed out abuse. The U.S. tech industry has been vocal in its criticism of Trump's immigration policies, particularly his beleaguered immigration executive order. It's not just a staffing issue.

More than half of the billion dollar startups in the U.S. were founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs, according to The National Foundation for American Policy.

This is not the first attempt to attract tech workers to Canadian businesses and cities. Companies like Sortable have run their own ad campaigns to win over U.S.-based workers. A group called True North offers packages for U.S. companies interested in opening a Canadian branch.

Home to Blackberry and startups like Hootsuit and Shopify, Ontario also hosts satellite offices for major U.S. tech companies like Google, Facebook, IBM and Amazon. Duguid says it's strong in areas like artificial intelligence, super-computing, clean-tech and autonomous vehicles.

Canada is not relying on ads and visas alone to appeal to companies. It has a variety of competitive tax credits. Duguid says Ontario has gotten rid of 80,000 "regulatory burdens" so tech companies have more flexibility for research and development, particularly car companies interested in self-driving vehicles. The province has also streamlined the ways it changes regulations so it can accommodate new technology faster.

The quality of life in Canada might also appeal to workers. Its cities are highly diverse - over half of Ontario's population was born outside of Canada. The cost of housing, while still high, seems sensible in comparison to current Bay Area prices.