Look beyond call centres, Cape Breton activist suggests

A Cape Breton community development activist warned Thursday about dangers hidden in the expansion of the local call centre industry.

Father Greg MacLeod is pleased with the hundreds of call centre jobs that are coming to Cape Breton. But he warned that those jobs can disappear as quickly as they come.

"The danger is that we will become complacent, and say: 'Hey, everybody's employed so we have nothing to worry about,' " he told CBC News in Sydney. "We've had that in the past. We had coal mines and a steel plant and people were employed and people thought everything was fine.

"OK, and then they shut down and then we have a crisis."

Cape Breton has been burned many times before, he said, noting that local people thoughtcoal and steel companies would stay forever. They didn't,nor will call centres.

"These kinds of companies, call centres, are obviously international and they move around," he said. "They move from province to province, from country to country, and it depends on where they get the best deal on tax incentives and wages and things of that kind."

His advice is to look beyond the immediate hirings and develop spinoff jobs that will last long after the call centres have gone.

There's money to be made supplying call centres with everything from payroll and cafeteria services to construction for their offices, he said.