Call Centre to Open in Cape Breton

One of the world's largest and most successful teleservice companies, ICT Group, is opening a call centre in Sydney. The new operation will create jobs for 200 people.

"This is an important development for Cape Breton County," said Manning MacDonald, Economic Development and Tourism Minister. "It will bring immediate benefit to the local economy and the 200 people who'll be working for ICT. This announcement is also launching an industry here. It's part of our provincial goal to grow telecommunications and other knowledge-based industries. This is a foundation on which we intend to build."

Minister MacDonald made the announcement at Centre 200 in Sydney during a news conference earlier today. The Province of Nova Scotia is investing $900,000 in the project to support staff recruitment and training. If the company meets and maintains employment targets, the loan will not have to be repaid. The province will recoup its investment in 3.5 years through direct taxes alone.

"We're very pleased to be setting up an operation in Sydney," said Jim Shannon, ICT's vice-president of international sales. "With the quality and skill of the Cape Breton workforce supporting us, we are very confident in the new operation's ability to serve our global clients from here. Our investment in Sydney is a sound economic decision."

The ICT centre is expected to open for business in August at a site on Vulcan Avenue in Sydney. The manager of the call centre is Glenn McCormack, a Sydney native who has worked at ICT's Moncton and Halifax operations.

"ICT is the most aggressive company I've ever seen. It builds success around its people and promotes from within," said Mr. McCormack. "It seems that the further east we move, the better the calibre of people. And, you can't go much further east than Cape Breton."

In 1997, ICT Group reported net revenues of nearly $92 million. The company operates 32 call centres in the United States, Europe and Canada, including five in Atlantic Canada. ICT employs over 4,000 people worldwide. ICT Group provides teleservices for clients in the financial, insurance, telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries.

The provincial government and its partner MT&T, through Connections Nova Scotia, have been instrumental in attracting 15 call centres to Nova Scotia in the last four years. These call centres will employ nearly 3500 Nova Scotians by 2001.