SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- Canadian Blood Services plans to open a second national call centre in New Brunswick.
The agency says the second centre is scheduled to open by July 2013 in Saint John and will be in addition to the organization's primary centre in Sudbury, Ont.
In a news release, chief operating officer Ian Mumford said Canadian Blood Services took several things into consideration before choosing Saint John.
"We identified many important considerations for the selection of the second site of our national contact centre, such as the availability of a bilingual work force, sufficient geographical protection against crises, which might impact a large area, and the accessibility of contact centre expertise," he said on Friday.
The new centre will share space with its blood donor clinic and blood stock holding unit.
The announcement comes just months after the New Brunswick government announced it would stop trying to keep Canadian Blood Services from moving blood production work to Halifax.
The move is expected to eliminate about 17 full-time positions.
Canadian Blood Services says to start, the centre will require roughly the same number.
Once the call centre is fully operational it will require about 50 staff.
The New Brunswick government looked at starting its own blood agency because of the decision by Canadian Blood Services to move to Halifax. It scrapped the idea after a consultant's report estimated start-up costs of between $27 million and $40 million alone to get a new agency running.
