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• In 2000 there were an estimated 13,400 call centre operations in Canada employing 570,000 workers.

• The sector has grown rapidly, experiencing an annual growth rate of approximately 26% in most recent years.

• The call centre industry is changing rapidly. Large sites of 100 plus workers now make up only 2% of the industry. The vast majority of workers are located in call centres with fewer than 25 operators. (75% of the industry).

• Ontario, which has the largest population of all Canadian provinces and the largest workforce, also has one of the largest concentrations of call centres in North America - nearly half of all Canadian call centres are in Ontario.

• Québec’s call centres are distributed in most regions of the province. While most call centres are located in Greater Montréal (75%), there are also some in the Eastern Townships (11%), Montérégie (4%), Québec City (4%), Laval (4%) and in the Laurentians (2%). 

As the call centre industry continues to grow and evolve, the range of services offered has altered. In a service economy employers try to increase profits through enhanced customer service. They use the call centre industry to provide these services and nearly half of the companies in this sector now offer services 24 hours a day.

In addition to the expansion of hours of service delivery, the industry has also expanded the types of services it offers. The industry provides services in such sectors as telecommunications and electronic products, transportation, pharmaceutical and medical products, insurance, banking and financial services, and it continues to grow! Health care by phone? Various forms of work, not normally seen as call centre based work, are now part of the call centre industry. Telephone banking grew by 50% in one year (1994-1995)

Today the industry performs a variety of service work:

• Handling customer complains and inquiries

• Conducting pre/post sales customer service

• Giving technical advice

• Entering orders and reservations

• Providing Help lines

• Acting as Collection agencies

• Providing Message centres and long-distance operator services

• Providing Warranty and repair service

Much of this work, such as telemarketing, fund raising, reservations, credit collection, has been typically defined by employers as low-skilled jobs and and they are frequently poorly paid. Yet call centre work requires considerable interpersonal skill, sales and telemarketing experience and frequently requires language skills in several languages yet these skills are rarely remunerated. However, as the call centre industry expands the services it delivers and integrates web based computer technology (web based multi-media centres or contact centres) the labour needs for this sector will alter.

"Through computer telephony integration automated call distribution and interactive voice response, call centres and customer contact centres are becoming a focus of customer service and also a repository for customer data."(Price Waterhouse)

When call centres first developed, the technology delivery system was pretty simple- a phone, a computer for inputting data and setting out scripts for outbound calling and that was it. Now, with the integration of the Internet multi-media call centres continue to expand the technology used to operate a centre. The internet has already altered the face of call centre work and some analysts are predicting that fully web-integrated contact centres will replace the call centre industry in the next 10 years. Certainly, as web enabled call centres compete in the industry, they will force others to adapt. Along with the changes in services provided we are also see a change in the amount and type of information gathered and stored. Recent changes in technology have allowed the industry to integrate outbound calling, data entry and inbound service into one site.

• Datamonitor predicted that 33% of all call centres and 64% of all outsourcing call centres will be web based by 2002.

As services by phone and computer become integrated with the internet, the nature of call centre work will change. Workers will be required to multi-task. The Ontario Technology Development Council suggests that "one way to add value to computer and call centres is to lower labour cost inputs by merging the roles of computer and call centre employees. Merging these roles means that customer service reps must do their own data entry and computer centre workers must collect their own information and make decisions." (Ontario Technology Development Council, )

Outbound call centres dominated the first generation of call centre industrial growth but will it continue to be the case in the next phase of growth and development? Global technological advances have created a trend toward out-sourcing call centre activities to firms specializing in their development, management, and operation. Data entry and outbound call centres are placed in one centre and inbound service delivery in another. As a consequence of this strategy, low-waged, semi-skilled work can be transferred to poorer rural areas in the country or to third world countries while smaller, higher-waged, service-oriented inbound call centres are located in larger metro areas that are willing to compete for them.

Location, location, location : Employers’ decisions about locating call centres are changing.

The availability of web enabled sites already having an affect on the location of the industry. Employers’ decisions concerning location are influenced by access to a well-educated, sustainable labour force, low operating costs, and a good telecommunications information structure.

According to market analysts call centres search for location based on the following criteria:

• Large toll free area

• Advanced telecommunications network

• Available college training

• Available well educated multi-lingual labour force

Communities across the country are competing for call centres. Labour costs are typically call centres’ prime operating cost but site location is also a prime concern for call centre companies. To attract call centres, many communities have taken a "call centre ready" approach. Municipalities use local taxes to attract call centres, setting up so-called "enterprise zones". For example, in Sudbury, Ontario with a labour force of 80,400, where a third of the population is French speaking the City Council has promoted the call centre industry. The Mayor Jim Gordon, sees the industry as central to economic growth and "he has spearheaded efforts to attract new, leading-edge employers. In the telecommunications sector alone, our community has seen the creation of 3,000 new jobs, with many others created in the big box retail sector. The financial impact of these new jobs will create tremendous opportunities, not just for the downtown, but for the economy of this entire region." Sudbury's call centre industry also continues to grow, with two new health-related call centres coming on stream in2002. Clinidata, one of five regional call centres for Ontario's telehealth program, and the new Canadian Blood Services national call centre are creating 150 new jobs. By March 2002, the call centre industry had over 3000 jobs and put $160 million into our economy annually. 

Telecommunication costs, local, long distance, data communication, and wireless services are key to location decisions. These tend to be lower in Canada than in the USA and this provides call centres here with a competitive advantage.(see Price-Waterhouse, p.31-32). These costs are often underwritten by communities and regions eager to attract call centres. For instance, New Brunswick, known as a site of new call centre growth, was the first province to eliminate provincial sales tax on 1-800 - calls.

Will we see a growth of smaller service-based call centres and a decline in the numbers of large outbound call centres?

What impact will this have on jobs in Canada?

What will the effect of off-shore out-sourcing be on union presence in the industry if unions are organizing only in the large out-bound centres?

Will out-sourcing, capital flight, and changes in unionization alter the character of the labour force?

Will it mean a shift from rural and small towns sites to the more labour concentrated larger centres where an ethnically diverse and well educated labour pool can be attracted to the industry?

Will the trend to locate call centre location in second tier cities such as Sudbury and smaller centres in Ontario and New Brunswick make municipal and provincial government initiatives that try to influence employers’ location decisions less attractive and reduce the importance of low labour costs?