Edmonton Journal

TD shutters another call centre; more jobs head to the Maritimes

Third such move in just over a decade sees work shipped to Halifax, Saint John

- GORDON KENT gkent@postmedia.com twitter.com/ GKentYEG

Edmonton is losing another TD Bank Group call centre after TD Insurance confirmed it’s closing its facility in the provincial capital and shifting the service to the Maritimes.

“After careful considerat­ion, we have made the decision to move our TD Insurance call centre operations that are currently in Edmonton to Halifax and Saint John, effective March 2, 2018,” TD spokespers­on Geraldine Anderson wrote in a brief email.

“We are committed to making every effort to limit the impact to employees and will be working closely with our partners across TD’s business lines to identify suitable positions in the Edmonton area, in addition to opportunit­ies in other regions for employees willing to relocate.”

Anderson wouldn’t reveal how many people work at the centre, apparently located in the Oxford Tower attached to Edmonton City Centre, because of the work being done to find them other jobs.

This is the third time in just over a decade TD has closed an Edmonton call centre. The company shut the TD Canada Trust call centre at the mall in 2008, citing a shortage of workers in a hot economy, a step that affected about 140 workers.

The TD Waterhouse investment centre at the mall was shuttered in March 2013, cutting another 130 jobs.

TD’s other Edmonton operations include retail and business banking, as well as wealth management services, Anderson wrote.

Ian O’Donnell, executive director of the Downtown Business Associatio­n, said Friday he hadn’t heard about the bank’s latest move.

“Certainly, we would be disappoint­ed if that decision was in fact true. We want to make sure we’re expanding the number of businesses in the downtown, especially at a time when vacancy rates are climbing,” he said.

“Call centres tend to take a decent amount of space. I’m curious to know what impact that will have.”

The city was once a call-centre darling as companies were attracted by low costs set up shop — by 2004 there were 140 of them in the Edmonton area, employing more than 7,500 people.

Computer company Dell, enticed in 2004 by a $1-a-year lease for 20 years on a six-hectare site at the Alberta Research Park and property tax rebates, put up a $20-million building that at its peak housed 1,500 people.

But Dell shut the facility four years later as the energy industry grew and wages rose, and other companies followed suit.

In 2016, Statistics Canada listed only 50 call centres with at least one employee in the entire province.

O’Donnell isn’t sure what the closure of the TD Insurance call centre will mean for the city.

“That’s certainly disappoint­ing. TD has been a wonderful tenant and a good partner downtown.”

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