Mr. Speaker, if you ask Canadians what they associate with Prince Edward Island, many will say Anne of Green Gables. Some might say amazing golf courses and others will say that it is a small, wonderful place to visit.
If I were to be asked the same question I might say call centres. Yes, that is right, I said call centres. We have a highly advanced telephone network.
Listing a few companies that have already set up shop on the island are Cows, Island Tel, the GST Centre, HookUp Communications and Watts Communications.
In fact we foresee such a growth in the industry that Holland College has set up a call centre and customer service excellence program to train call centre workers. The program will be the benchmark for high level training standards in the industry.
The call centre industry will provide year round full time jobs for Islanders. It is an excellent niche that has great potential for employment opportunities. Islanders are taking full advantage of their strength in carving out specialty niches, and eventually they will break the seasonality of the island economy.