Fortis Centre Officially Opened
Thursday, January 19, 2012 @ 12:28 PM
Fortis President John Walker accepts commemorative plaque from Mayor Shari Green
Prince George, B.C.- Although staff have been working on site since January 1st, the new Fortis Customer Service Centre on 2nd Avenue in Prince George was officially opened this morning.
Fortis President and CEO John Walker, says the project has been 22 months in the making at a cost of about $4 million dollars which includes the acquisition and renovation of the building that was the former home of the LiveBridge call centre.
The new facility is spacious, bathed in natural light, and wherever possible, there is a reminder of the Prince George community’s roots in forestry. The frosting on windows and doors, the images on the walls, open beams, and even the carpet design, all say “forest”. The renovations included adding an elevator, and a roof top patio.
(Photos below left, forestry reflected in many aspects of interior design, on right, employees answer customer calls)
The new Customer Service centre is home to 100 employees.
Walker says Fortis wanted to make the move to B.C. customer service centres because the representatives have a better understanding of the region, “When you call asking why your bill was so high in January, they ( staff) will know it was because it was minus 40.” Walker says bringing the jobs back to B.C. was more cost effective than continuing the outsourcing of jobs to the East Coast of Canada and offshore.
There were 3,000 applications for the 100 jobs in P.G. and on the first day of receiving calls, those employees handled 8,000 incoming calls, double the anticipated number.
Comments
I think the credit goes to IPG and others for landing this deal over a year ago. Hopefully the mayor recognized all the people who actually did the work to land this which of course was before she came along. Nice photo though.
Nice to have the 100 jobs. This will replace the 300 or so that we lost when Livebridge shut down.
It does not however replace any jobs that we lost because of the sale of Inland Gas, to Terasen Gas, or the Sale of Terasen Gas to Kinder Morgan, or the sale by Kinder Morgan of the Canadian utility gas business to Fortis Canada. Which is a Canadian company located in Eastern Canada.
IPG purchased this building with PG Taxpayers money, and in addition the City of Prince George wired the building for computers, etc; at a cost of $400,000.00.
I have no idea whether or not IPG had anything to do with the location here, however we can thank the taxpayers of Prince George for having a building available for the move.
The way I hear it the city helped with the purchase and upgrade of the building but the tenants had an operating lease with IPG that covered the loan and costs for upgrades. I hope they will be paying property taxes. I wouldn’t want my taxes to go up or more cuts in services just so private corporations like fortis can get a tax break.
So what does the plaque say ? Smiling Shariff Green was here ?
Roof top patio for scarfing down a quick coffee, inhaling the CN yards and back inside coughing while talking to people on the phone? Good idea.
I guess she`s smilng,,,,knowing city workers are getting laid off,to pay for council member`s salary raises,on the backs of property owner`s tax increases,service cuts,and,and, etc.etc.etc.
PG politics….no wonder they frowned upon the circus…too much competition.
‘Roof top patio for scarfing down a quick coffee, inhaling the CN yards and back inside coughing while talking to people on the phone? Good idea.’
Way to put a steaming coiler on a story about local job creation I’monabinger.
Why don’t you climb out of your retiree EasyBoy recliner and offer some positive advice for a change?
Perfect place for the 9 people that got laid off to go work. Win win.
Brings to mind the Terasen deal we PGers were supposed to get a huge profit from? What is happening with the cash we were going to be paid for the loan, we getting a reduction in property tax one day or has that ship sailed away?
slinky,
on the Terasen deal, ask a councellor. the bucks are in fact coming in and the pay off with the final installment is in about 8 more years I believe, but ask a councellor.
Thank the taxpayers of Canada for the original building too. It was spec built for the unemployment insurance people, or whatever they are called this year. Long leases paid for the building long before it was sold to the City.
On a positive note, a local General built the original building, and another local General along with local trades completed the most recent major renovation, lots of money spent on materials and labour, mostly local.
metalman.
Positive advice for a change? Nah! I don’t think so. By the way, have you priced “Easy Boy” recliners lately? Hey! The name ain’t Rockefeller, ya know.
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