Call Centres in New Brunswick: Maquiladoras of the North?

New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna calls them "high quality, highly skilled, high paying, pollution-free jobs." ("Premier Challenged on Job Creation" 1). McKenna was describing the thousands of jobs that have lately been created in New Brunswick by enterprises in the hightech communications, information, and business-service sector setting up shop in the province. McKenna and his government have been particularly successful in persuading national and international companies to set up customer-service centres using toll-free phone numbers. Most of those working in such centres are women. Since 1992, over 4,000 jobs have been created in New Brunswick by more than 30 companies establishing call-centre operations in the province.(1) The largest of them, in terms of job creation, is United Parcel Service (UPS), which has more than 1,000 people working in its customer-service and administrative centres. The smallest, a travel agency's call centre, has created five jobs. Most have located in Moncton, Saint John, or Fredericton, although smaller communities such as Bathurst, Campbellton, and St. Stephen are now also host to call centres. Certainly, there are great differences between the New Brunswick call centres and the Mexican maquiladoras and like industries. Tariffs and duties are not a factor in the communications technology sector in New Brunswick. The maquiladoras are based on light manufacturing, the call centres on communications technology. Such light industries typically require an extreme manual dexterity from workers, while call centres need only competent keyboarders.