Call centre to be developed in Kenora.

• Author: GOULIQUER, DIANNE

Despite being identified in a study two years ago as an unsuitable location for a call centre, Kenora will be hosting a new outbound telecommunications centre before the summer.

"I'd say (the call centre) is a go at this point," Kenora Municipal Telephone Service (KMTS) manager Dennis McCaffrey says. "There's a whole lot of pieces of the puzzle that are in various stages of being finalized, but it certainly looks like a go."

Thunder Bay's Superior Telecom will run the Kenora operation with the help of the community's municipal telephone system. McCaffrey says KMTS will primarily be responsible for buying the technology for the call centre.

"Our role here is mainly just to do with the telecommunications aspects of it," McCaffrey says. "We're buying some call centre technology - like an auto-dialer system - which we'll lease back to the call centre for their operation, and we provide the local service and the high-speed connections for all the long-distance circuits."

Kenora's position in central Canada makes it an attractive location for telemarketing companies looking to setup call centres, McCaffrey says.

Being in the Central Standard Time Zone allows...