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Proposed legislation to protect American jobs won’t likely affect Canadian call centres, according to officials from one Prince George centre.
The head of Canada’s call centre association was sounding the alarm bells last week after a controversial bill was introduced into the U.S. Congress this month.
The legislation is designed to stop the outsourcing of jobs from the U.S. to other countries.
If passed, it could result in “massive layoffs,” Linda Osip, executive director of the Canadian Call Management Association told the CBC.
Under the proposed legislation, a call centre operator would be forced to ask callers if they would prefer to have their call transferred to an American centre. If the caller says yes, the centre would be forced to reroute the call to the States.
As Prince George prepares to welcome its second call centre, an economic development officer from the city is at a conference that played a central role in landing the city’s first call centre.
Initiatives Prince George president Gerry Offet says he is “reasonably confident” a deal to bring a Synovate research centre to the city will be complete by next week.
The global research company said in March a deal to move here was virtually complete. It had hoped to be up and running by July.
That date has been pushed back as the company finalizes a lease agreement with its new landlord and negotiates improvements to the facility, said Offet. He could not name the location until the deal is complete.