The tech giant is hiring 3,000 new workers for its Vancouver hub and another 500 in Toronto by 2023, the company announced Monday. The expansions include increasing its real-estate footprint by more than 680,000 square feet and 130,000 square feet in downtown Vancouver and Toronto, respectively. (The Logic)

Talking point: The expansion will bring Amazon’s Vancouver employee count to 8,000 by 2024 and about 2,100 in Toronto by 2023. The expansion is at odds with other tech firms that are choosing to work remotely by default. Shopify is vacating its former Ottawa headquarters and one Toronto office. Facebook plans to have half its employees work remotely within five to 10 years, and Google will keep workers out of the office until at least summer 2021. “What we’ve heard is that [employees] really value being able to be together, and interact in real time to solve interesting customer problems, but they also value the flexibility created by work from home,” Jesse Dougherty, Amazon’s Vancouver site lead, told The Globe and Mail. The company has already begun its hiring spree, with nearly 800 job openings in Canada.