Indeed, Canada has much to offer to companies looking for call center locations. Canada's highly-skilled work force is attractive to employers; fully 58 percent of Ontario's labor force has a post-secondary education, and over 100 languages are spoken in the province -- a decided asset in this global sector. A strong work ethic translates into lower turnover and absenteeism, further reducing costs. And in study after study, Canada has been shown to provide significant savings in those areas that weigh the most in call center operations: telecommunications, lease costs, taxes and, most important, human resources. In addition, the "World Competitiveness Report" ranked Canada first for the quality of its telecommunications infrastructure.

Amex Canada's call center in Markham handles 30,000 calls a day and has the capacity to manage 10 times more with its 2,500 work stations per shift.

"We're taking a long term approach here," says their director of customer service and call center operations, Tony Nadra, who also agrees that a multilingual staff is critical to operations in Canada. "Given the sheer size of the ethnic population, we won't have to move when we take on new languages."

Accordingly, Amex Canada last April launched its Partnering for Success Outsourcing Advantage program, putting the experience of its staff to work for othercompanies.

In Quebec, the call center industry already boasts 50 major call centers and employs 35,000 individuals. It also has developed special niches in the financial, technical and medical fields.

The Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. call center, for example, supports all of North America and regularly handles calls in English, French and Spanish, while some of its agents also speak Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin and German.

Household Finance had considered relocating its call center, but "the quality of Montreal man-power and support from the provincial government and local business community" have prompted HFC to consolidate its North American activities in Montreal and add a further 592 agents, according to director Jean-Claude Marsolais.

The availability of a multilingual work force has made it possible for the newly formed Quebec Call Center Corp. -- Vision Quebec -- to staff a four-language operation in only two weeks' time, according to Francois Durocher, vice president of sales and marketing. More than 80 languages are commonly spoken in Quebec and 35 percent of the population is fluently bilingual (French and English). Vision Quebec plans to create 70 call centers and 5,000 jobs in the next five years.

Nortel was one of the first companies to move its call center to New Brunswick back in 1991. According to director of telemarketing Dave Hanson, what started out as a small operation has grown in leaps and bounds "because of the quality of the service provided by employees at the St. John facilities."

The center went outbound three years ago and then won two North American mandates from Nortel: the consolidation of the consumer product help desk and the response to 1-800-4-NORTEL and e-mail inquiries. ICT Group of Langhorne, Penn., a leading marketing, management and information research services firm, has 28 call centers throughout the world, two of which are located in St. John's and Moncton, New Brunswick.

"[New Brunswick was chosen for] its strong bilingual work force, its pro-business government and its state-of-the-art, fiber optic digital telecommunications infrastructure," according to marketing director Patricia Crane.

"We're finding that favorable calling rates in this region allow for cost-effective telephone marketing for our U.S.-based multinational clients to their customers within the United States," said John J. Brennan, chairman and CEO, at the opening of the Moncton facilities in January 1997. The St. John facility was awarded two StarBound Awards from J.C. Penney's Canadian Premier Life Insurance Co. for outstanding telephone marketing performance and overall vendor performance and quality.

According to Dave McLane, director of information and communications technology at Enterprise PEI, Prince Edward Island has had considerable success in attracting high quality call centers over the past 18 months due to the partnership between Island Tel, the provincial government, and Holland College, a competency-based "money-back guarantee" institution with 13 campuses on the Island.

The lack of red tape has made it possible for Watts Communications Ltd., one of Canada's foremost direct marketing services organizations, to set up its second Canadian call center in only six months. In just nine months, Watts had grown to its three-year objective of 240 agents, and is now considering PEI for its third call center, according to McLane.

"Our province has top-notch labor resources, a sound and reliable telecommunications network, and a responsive and flexible government that is committed to attracting new business," said Martin P. Walker, director of business development for Connections Nova Scotia, the partnership between the province of Nova Scotia and Maritime Telegraph & Telephone. "This is all packaged in a truly cost competitive environment that boasts a quality of life that is second to none."

A 1995 Price Waterhouse study found telecommunication rates, office space and salaries in Nova Scotia to be the lowest of provinces surveyed. Connections Nova Scotia has been instrumental in securing over 2,000 new positions in the call center industry in Nova Scotia since 1994, large call centers such as that of the Sears Atlantic Catalogue Center, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce telebanking center, the Phonettix Intelecom center and the MCI Systemhouse Image and Data Center.

It is the concentration of a highly trained work force that attracted Phonettix to Halifax. Phonettix, a reseller of IVR and advanced call center technology, acquired DMS Intelecom, Canada's largest contract call center operation, in 1995 and was looking to establish a combined call center/systems development center, explains chairman and CEO Michael Jarman.

"Our biggest market is Europe, and in Halifax we are physically closer to Europe, reducing flight time by two hours in comparison to Toronto," said Jarman.

Some 20 call centers presently operate in Newfoundland and Labrador. The province's unique time zone -- one hour and 30 minutes ahead of Eastern StandardTime -- translates in significant cost discounts during off-peak calling periods. A 1996 Coopers & Lybrand study found total operating costs for call centers in St. John's and Corner Brook, Newfoundland, to be the lowest of 19 locations across Canada and the United States. To top it off, new and expanding businesses are afforded a host of fiscal incentives through the Economic Diversification and Growth Enterprises program (EDGE).