City boasts a prosperous year 2000 in economic development.

• Author: SITTER, KEN
• Position: North Bay, Ontario - Brief Article

Building permits up 150 per cent from 1999

Peter Minogue has no doubt in his mind that 2000 "has been an exciting year in North Bay."

The chairman of the city's Economic Development Commission lists the city's accomplishments without pausing to think. Call centres, increased construction activity, a declining unemployment rate, increased activity at the airport and progress in the four-laning of Highway 11 between North Bay and Huntsville, trip off his tongue.

"The creation of 500, 600 or 700 jobs in new call centres was definitely a highlight," Minogue says. "We have an advantage in our fibre optic network."

Several years ago the city and Economic Development Commission identified the industry as one with good potential for growth and as an opportunity for North Bay. The work completed to develop the infrastructure and make the city attractive has paid off, Minogue says.

TeleTech Communications of Denver, Colo., announced in August plans to create about 500 jobs in North Bay at a new call centre to handle mostly inbound traffic, provide technical support and act as online representatives for a host of companies.

Only a few weeks earlier Medcan Health Management Inc. announced it would open a medical information call centre in the city in October, serving patients of client clinics, doctors and hospitals. Starting with openings for 20 registered nurses to answer the calls, the company expressed hopes to grow to several hundred jobs, he says.

London, Ont.-based Oracle The Assistance Group added a second call centre to its North Bay location in September creating 45 new jobs. The new centre gives roadside assistance to motorists across North America for clients including Daimler Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and BMW.

Oracle subsidiary Clinidata operates the one-year-old Direct Health call centre in the city.

Unemployment steadily declined during the year to 6.9 per cent in November putting North Bay on a par with the rest of Canada, and ahead of most of Northern Ontario, he says.

A Human Resources Development Canada official notes this summer's employment levels throughout the region were the highest in 10 years, spurred on partly by construction activity.

A substantial part of that activity was in North Bay where building permits...