Call Centers Weather Shifting Sands Of New Economy (cover) Call Center Growth on the Rise New Economy = New Facilities? India Emerges as Hot Spot European Growth Goes Exponential Canada: North America's Sweetheart New US Markets Emerge Request Information 
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SITE SELECTION SPECIAL FEATURE FROM JANUARY 2001
Canada: "Canada is still one of the premiere locations within North America," says White. "The reason is that it is 70 cents on the dollar for labor costs just because of the exchange rate, plus labor costs are already about 20 percent cheaper."
Canadian labor, though tightening some, is much more available than in the neighboring US. The International Monetary Fund expects that Canada's unemployment rate will drop to 6.6 percent in 2001, compared to the US' 4.2 percent. Certain provinces provide even more labor than others. Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, have unemployment rates in the range of 15.4 percent. Toronto has been the top spot for US companies locating call centers in Canada, but "if you locate there, you run into the same problems attracting and keeping labor at affordable wage levels as in similar US markets," says White. So in the recent tradition of its European brethren, Canada's smaller metropolitan markets are coming to the forefront. "We're interested in Canada because there are still many first- and second-tier cities, with metropolitan areas of approximately 200,000 people and above, that have the same favorable competition characteristics of US third- and fourth-tier cities," explains Matt Jackson, manager with Deloitte and Touche Fantus, Los Angeles.
Source: Conway Data Inc.'s New Plant Database
Canada has several markets that are far from tapped out. Included are Calgary, Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta; Hamilton, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Vancouver, British Columbia. In Quebec, for instance, "there have been significant numbers of call centers showing up," says Shapiro. "The whole Montreal area attracted some 1,200 to 1,300 call center jobs in 1999." Another trend in Canadian call center locations is a shift from the coastal provinces to the central provinces, says Shapiro. Some of Canada's largest call center announcements last year went to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. SOO Connection located its 500-job operation in Sault Ste. Marie, while Air Canada sited its 500-person center in Winnipeg.
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