Another call centre! Wow! We must have dozens of them by now.

So?

What, no comments yet about these not being "real" jobs, how they are only for kids, how they'll be minimum wage, how they won't help unemployed forestry workers or talk about what the City gave up to get the call centre?

People on Opinion 250 are slipping, LOL!

Oh and for the record I think this is great news.

Yes, there will be jobs for kids, but there will also be jobs that do pay a pretty get salary. Managers, Supervisors, and IT Workers at the very least make very good wages working for Terasen. We need jobs to keep young people employed and out of trouble. What is wrong with that?

Besides, I haven't seen any announcement of wages, where did you get your information from? My niece worked at the old call centre and she made well above minimum wage. She told me you had to be a serious slacker to be stuck at minimum wage for any length of time.

I agree with you Streetwise2, sorry if my sarcasm didn't come across as such. It seems every single time there is talk of a call centre (or any new employer for that matter), the gut reaction from many people, especially around here, is to bemoan over it and complain that it isn't a mill so what's the point.

I personally have no issue whatsoever with this operation. It's a stable BC company and like you said, there likely will be great opportunities for people to get their foot in the door of a very large operation.

Due to being in house employees, they will be higher wages then the third party call center employees. Great news for the downtown and the general employment of Prince George.

Sorry NMG if it seemed I was jumping on you. I guess I am so used to seeing the knee jerk reactions that I didn't notice the sarcasm.

I have noticed some new posters lately that seem to have a much better attitude and post well thought out comments rather then the typical the sky is falling - it's the liberals fault and stop doing everything but fix potholes crowd.

I quit comming here because I found it too depressing, I am pleasantly suprised to see the better attitude.

It is good to see companies like Terasen and Telus putting their call centres here in PG!!

That will be an additional 100 people that can potentially be eating and shopping downtown. Store owners/restaurateurs, get out there and grab theses peoples attention!!

Good Christ you guys are one dimensional. Do you forget that BC Gas and Teresan had facilities here in Prince George a number of years ago and that they shut down their operations and moved them elsewhere. They located their call centres and invoicing in other Countries.

They are now coming back, as it seems it didnt work out for them, and thats a good thing, however if you want to get a clear picture of what actually happened you would need to know how many jobs they whacked a few years ago versus how many they are now bringing back, and see if there is a net gain or loss.

In any event I agree that getting the jobs back is good for the economy and the employment picture. Any job is better than no job. (In most cases)

When you look at the original lost jobs, then the lost jobs from the Original Call Centres, (approx 300) and then the new jobs that should be here by 2012, you probably still have a net loss of 200/300 jobs.

Some how or other I am sure that this will be considered a **negative** post.

Palopu, I could say something about your constant one-dimensional negativity. Oops, maybe I did.

Yes Terasen (BC Gas) had an office here and shut it down. So did Telus, BC Hydro, etc.

Terasen's office wasn't a call centre, and this one will be. Two different types of operations the way I see it.

Mr PG I know Terasens office wasnt a call centre, What differance does that make?? A job lost is a job lost, a job gained is a job gained.

It depends on how you look at things over time. The CN downsized over the years, and then some more when they bought BC Rail so we probably lost 800 to 1000 jobs.

Then when the container trains come through they put on 4/6 jobs. So is this a gain of 6 jobs, or a net loss over ten years of 800 to 1000 Jobs.???

Have a nice day.

Companies restructure, downsize, 'right-size' or otherwise change with the times and technology. We simply do not need the same amount of people that we used to due to technological advances. Some people are re-trained, some are let go. Whose fault is that?

One of the functions of the old BC Gas office was to handle bill payments. How many of us nowadays pay bills electronically?

Mr PG.

BC Gas was sold to Terasen.

Terasen was sold to Kinder Morgan a huge US Conglomerate.

Kinder Morgan is a 50% owner of a Call Centre Co., and Terasens business was transferred from BC to Ontario, and the Phillipines.

Kinder Morgan sold the BC natural gas distribution business of Terasen Inc. to Power Producer Fortis Inc. Fortis Inc is one of Atlantic Canadas biggest companies as the owner of Newfoundland Power.

It now seems that the business that Kinder Morgan transferred to thier Company in returning to British Columbia, to Terasen Gas.

I suspect that re-establishing this business here it either for cost purposes, or to establish a presence in BC (jobs) to impress the BCUC on some future ruling.

Have a nice day.