The following are clips of news articles written about Research in Motion's opening in Halifax and Bedford, Nova Scotia.

Hamm lures RIM call centre to Halifax
1,200 jobs over next 5 years: BlackBerry maker changes plans after Premier's visit Mark Evans, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, November 26, 2005 Article tools
Research in Motion Ltd.'s Canadian content got a major boost yesterday when the BlackBerry device maker agreed to create 1,200 jobs in Halifax over the next five years.The move to put its new technical support centre in Halifax came after a long decision-making process by RIM. After paring its list down to four locations in Canada and the U.S. that did not include Halifax, RIM changed its mind when Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm flew to the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ont., two months ago to make a "cold call" to RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie.
"Premier Hamm did a great job," Mr. Balsillie said yesterday. "We were definitely late in the process. ... It was a fluke but a fortuitous fluke for us and, hopefully, fortuitous for them but good things happen when you are out there trolling and swinging."Like many job-creation situations, RIM's decision was sweetened by financial incentives: a $14-million provincial payroll tax rebate and $5-million for recruiting and training.Mr. Balsillie said the support is helpful, but it is more important to find a good, cost-efficient location with a skilled workforce, good infrastructure and a strong education system.
Another consideration, he said, was geographical diversity to provide protection against potential problems such as bad weather and power grid outages. This is one of the reasons RIM ruled out putting the 1,200 jobs in southern Ontario following the widespread power outage in August 2003.
"A very big part of a company's success is governed by the quality of people you bring into it," Mr. Balsillie said, adding the company is still "completely committed" to growing its operations in Ontario.
"It is not only the quality of people but access to them. In a sense, there aren't many pools of really skilled people in technology and technology services in North America going around untapped. I think we are being a little opportunistic here."
While most attention on Canada's high-tech industry is focused on Waterloo, Toronto and Ottawa, Nova Scotia is quietly building a reputation as an attractive place for companies to establish operations. Among the large companies doing business there are CGI Group Inc., Keane Inc. and Versata Inc., which moved its R&D operations to Halifax from Bangalore, India.
"In the last three years, we have been able to build a critical component here for an IT community, and RIM is an anchor tenant," said Stephen Lund, president and CEO with Nova Scotia Business Inc., the province's business development agency. "We've had as much success in creating IT jobs in Nova Scotia as any place anywhere."
The people being hired by RIM in Halifax will provide technical and special services to BlackBerry customers who have problems that can not be solved by one of RIM's 200 carrier partners, which include Bell Canada, Telus Corp. and Rogers Wireless. The facility will also provide technical services to RIM's largest 15,000 business customers. Mr. Lund said their salaries will range from $45,000 to $48,000. RIM operates other centres in Waterloo, Asia and Europe.

Mr. Lund said Nova Scotia, which initially hoped to attract 200 jobs from RIM, is already talking with the company for other types of assignments such as R&D.

Anatomy of a deal---Nova Scotia Life.com
Open to the World, Summer 2006
How Nova Scotia lured Research In Motion—one of the world’s most important IT firms
by Tom Mason

During a trip to Washington, D.C., three years ago, former premier John Hamm and Nova Scotia Business Inc. (www.novascotiabusiness.com) president and CEO Stephen Lund talked with several D.C.-based technology firms about Nova Scotia’s business future. The province seemed perfectly positioned to take advantage of the outsourcing revolution. The first wave of that revolution—the call centre business—had invested heavily in Nova Scotia based on its world-class digital infrastructure, competitive costs, and highly educated workforce.

In Halifax Lund and NSBI recruited a few high-profile companies. At the top of the list was Research In Motion (RIM), which has become one of the most important IT companies in the world, driven by the BlackBerry, its signature product.

The first step was to get the province on RIM’s radar and to build awareness of the advantages of locating a technology-based operation in Nova Scotia. Lund assigned the file to Jennifer Chiasson, a tech-savvy business-development executive. For two years Chiasson built a relationship with the company in order to understand RIM’s global operation and chain of command. Her goal was to keep Nova Scotia in RIM’s peripheral vision and to position the province for future opportunities.

By the fall of 2005, NSBI had attracted companies such as Montreal-based CGI and Silicon Valley’s SupportSoft. To build on that momentum, NSBI brought together Canada’s top IT CEOs in Toronto to meet with the premier; unfortunately, no one from RIM could attend. Undaunted, Chiasson arranged a meeting with RIM executives in Waterloo, Ont. Hamm was again recruited to help pitch an unsolicited proposal for one of RIM’s business lines.

Unbeknownst to Lund, RIM was already shopping for a location. “The company had culled six candidate sites from 30 locations around the world,” says Lund. Halifax wasn’t on the list, but RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie listened to the pitch anyway, then said, “It sounds like you’ve got something we should take another look at.” To help land The Big One, Lund assembled a team of business leaders that would morph into Team Nova Scotia. “We told everybody that we had a chance to bring the biggest business opportunity to Nova Scotia in 30 years,” says Lund.

It's probably the most significant deal in Canada this year

The effort—code-named Project Hip, after one of Balsillie’s favourite bands, The Tragically Hip—had to be conducted quietly to protect the company’s confidentiality and the province’s opportunity. Timing was crucial; the company was experiencing exponential growth and needed to start setting up its new operation. The NSBI team worked tirelessly to anticipate every possible question, right down to how frequently the buses run in Halifax. They returned to Waterloo to present their pitch; a few days later, eight RIM executives flew to Nova Scotia.

The team pulled out all the stops. “We took them around the area on a helicopter tour,” says Lund. “We set up meetings with political, business, and academic leaders. We blew them away with our attention to detail and the quality of what we had to offer. The educated labour force, our strategic location, the best broadband network in Canada, our competitive business costs.”

At NSBI’s urging, the provincial government offered $19 million in tax rebates and incentives toward RIM’s $230-million expansion. However, the money wasn’t the deciding factor. “RIM didn’t come here because of a tax rebate,” says Lund. “We’re talking about a multibillion-dollar company. You have to offer some kind of cash incentive to demonstrate you’re willing to share the risk.” In the following weeks, Lund and his team generated support for a Halifax location at all levels. The Canadian government already had a long-standing relationship with the company and supported a made-in-Canada solution to meet its growth needs.

RIM’s regional headquarters in Halifax will be a mid-tier tech-support centre; technicians from service providers can call to troubleshoot BlackBerry’s technological riddles. In turn, the centre will feed new R&D ideas back to engineers in Waterloo. The facility will pump more than $500 million into the provincial economy over the next five years, employing about 1,200 college and university graduates with annual salaries of more than $45,000. It’s probably the most significant deal in Canada this year.

“It was a big win for Canada and Nova Scotia, and it came together because everyone came to the table,” says Lund. “Companies like the alignment we have with government, business, and academia--Everyone says, ‘Here’s my phone number—let’s make it happen.’ ”

Nova Scotia welcomes Research In Motion --New Wire .ca-April 21, 2006
RIM's Halifax-based technical support operations centre now open

HALIFAX, April 20 /CNW/ - Research In Motion (RIM) today officiallyopened its new technical support operations centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.The centre is now open for business with over 60 employees already in place toprovide technical support of RIM's global operations.
The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister
Responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency; Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald; Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO of Research In MotionLtd. and Stephen Lund, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI)will mark the milestone with a ribbon-cutting event today at RIM's initialHalifax site at 36 Solutions Drive."As an undisputed global leader in mobile communications, RIM's success
has put Canadian innovation on the world map," said Mr. McKay. "There are no boundaries to where RIM can take its growth, and the company's new Halifax operation will help fuel their ongoing success." A significant addition to the province's robust information technology
(IT) and business community, RIM plans to add more than 1,200 new jobs over a five-year period at its technical support operations centre in Halifax. "RIM is renowned for its innovation, drive and energy," said Mr. MacDonald. "The same characteristics describe Nova Scotia's talented IT professionals. We're proud to see our talented Nova Scotia workforce engaged in this progressive,world-leading company."
RIM announced its expansion to Nova Scotia last November with the help of a $14-million performance-based payroll rebate through Nova Scotia's business development agency, NSBI, and a $5-million financial package including recruitment and training incentives from the province's Office of Economic Development. "Nova Scotia's strong post-secondary research environment and talented IT workforce have provided us with an excellent labour base for recruitment," said Mr. Balsillie. "The Halifax technical operations centre will play a key
role in RIM's strategy of delivering world class support to our rapidly growing list of customers."
The IT professionals at RIM's Nova Scotian home will enjoy a competitive salary and benefits package while being part of a dynamic company that has created one of the world's most compelling and rapidly adopted technologies. "NSBI, on behalf of the business and IT communities in Nova Scotia, is proud to welcome RIM to the province," said Mr. Lund. "The reason leading companies like RIM are choosing Nova Scotia is simple: world-class people and competitive business advantages for IT growth." RIM is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. BlackBerry(R) is the world leading wireless communications solution developed by RIM that keeps mobile professionals connected to people and information.
Since launching BlackBerry in 1999, RIM's customer base has grown to over 5 million BlackBerry subscribers and is supported on carrier networks around the world. Nova Scotia Business Inc. is the private sector-led business development agency for Nova Scotia. NSBI is the investment attraction arm of the province and helps companies in Nova Scotia meet their growth potential through business advisory, export development and financial services.

Research In Motion breaks ground at new Halifax-area technical support centre Canadian Press
Published: Friday, October 27, 2006 Article tools

BEDFORD, N.S. (CP) - Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM), the company behind the Blackberry hand-held computer, broke ground at its Halifax-area technical support centre on Thursday as it promoted its plans to recruit more workers.

The Waterloo, Ont., company plans to hire 1,200 people to work in the facility in Bedford over the next five years.

The expansion was announced last fall, and earlier this year RIM opened a temporary centre in Halifax. The company has already hired more than 200 workers and has posted more jobs on its website.

"We've been thoroughly impressed to date with the Nova Scotia talent and skilled labour that we've been able to recruit," said Peter Broughall, RIM's vice-president of customer support. "It's absolutely fantastic."

The 13,500 square-metre building is on schedule to be completed by spring of 2008, Broughall said.

The Nova Scotia government offered $19 million in subsidies to convince RIM to base its expansion in the province. The funding includes $14 million in payroll rebates and $5 million for training and recruitment.

Premier Rodney MacDonald, who took part in a groundbreaking ceremony, said the $230-million expansion sends a message to other businesses that Nova Scotia is a good place to do business.

"Companies like Research In Motion, and our home-grown successes demonstrate that there are opportunities to grow, there are opportunities to compete, and there are opportunities here in Nova Scotia to succeed," said MacDonald.

RIM launched the Blackberry in 1999, and currently boasts more than six million subscribers worldwide

RIM Breaks Ground on New Technical Campus
Posted date: October 26, 2006

Halifax (October 26, 2006) --The innovator behind BlackBerry broke ground today for its technical support operations centre in Nova Scotia.

Canadian technology company Research In Motion (RIM) is set to begin construction of its technical support operations centre in Hammonds Plains. The facility will house the up to 1,200 employees the company plans to hire over the next five years.

Premier Rodney MacDonald released details about the project at the construction site today, Oct. 26, along with Peter Kelly, mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality, Peter Broughall, vice-president of customer support operations for RIM, and Stephen Lund, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI).

"Nova Scotia is a province that prides itself on its strengths in information technology and education," said Premier MacDonald. "The construction of this new facility marks an important step in Nova Scotia's partnership with RIM."

RIM announced its expansion to Nova Scotia last November. The company's growth is supported by a $14-million performance-based payroll rebate through NSBI, and a $5-million financial package, including recruitment and training incentives, from the province's Office of Economic Development.

"It is essential that we invest in sectors that will solidify the province's economy," said Economic Development Minister Richard Hurlburt. "RIM's new technical operations centre will help ensure a strong future in information technology for the province."

RIM began looking for land late last fall in the Halifax area to build its support centre. Construction on the 13,500 square metre (150,000 square foot) facility will begin at the site in Hammonds Plains.

"Halifax Regional Municipality has earned an outstanding reputation as an excellent place to do business," said Mr. Kelly. "RIM's new centre will further elevate that reputation and enhance our standing as a world leader in information technology."

In April, RIM opened at an interim location near Bayers Lake Industrial Park and has hired more than 200 employees to date.

"We chose Nova Scotia as a strategic area to grow our business because of its strong information technology background and the quality of the education system," said Mr. Broughall. "We're looking forward to establishing strong roots in this region and growing our team over the coming years."

The announcement of RIM's expansion in Nova Scotia is a crucial step toward growing the province's information technology sector. RIM's permanent facility is expected to open in spring 2008.

"RIM is a proven leader in information technology and has chosen to expand to Nova Scotia for a reason," said Mr. Lund. "We have the competitive advantages that make us the ideal location for leading international companies such as RIM, and this permanent location demonstrates RIM's commitment to the region."

RIM is the developer and manufacturer of the world-renowned BlackBerry wireless solution and is a leader in mobile communications. Since launching BlackBerry in 1999, RIM's customer base has grown to more than six-million BlackBerry subscribers and is supported on carrier networks around the world.

Nova Scotia Business Inc. is the private sector-led business development agency for Nova Scotia. NSBI is the investment attraction arm of the province and helps companies in Nova Scotia meet their growth potential through business advisory, export development and financial services.

Remarks for Premier Rodney MacDonald
RIM Groundbreaking Announcement
Angus Morton Drive, Bedford
October 26, 2006
Thank you Stephen.
Minister Goucher, Dr. Hamm, Mr. Broughall, Mayor Kelly, ladies and gentlemen good morning.

I am very pleased to be here to mark a notable milestone. Today, we are celebrating the next phase in Research In Motion's (RIM) $230-million expansion in Nova Scotia:
The purchase of land and construction of a 150,000 square foot (13,500 square metre) technical support operations center.

Since opening its interim facility just six months ago, RIM has created almost 200 jobs in Nova Scotia, and the company is not slowing down. Over the next five years, RIM plans to create up to 1,200 new jobs in our province – jobs for skilled, educated Nova Scotians, long-term, well-paying jobs.

Thinking of RIM brings to mind a clear picture of an innovator, a global leader, a company that values its people. Think of RIM and also see the new Nova Scotia. Last week, I had the opportunity to address the prestigious Canadian Club in Ottawa. I shared my vision for the New Nova Scotia:

we are focused on the future;
we are driving Nova Scotia's economy through innovation and technology;
and playing to Nova Scotia's strengths.
Last month, the province had the privilege to host many of the country’s leading IT firms when the Information Technology Association of Canada held its board meeting in Halifax. The event gave Nova Scotia an opportunity to showcase our strengths.

We also continued the work of raising awareness with young Nova Scotians because there are tremendous educational and career opportunities waiting for them in IT, and let me say thanks to you here today. Your effort to raise awareness, and the team approach, is working. The board members of the Information Technology Association were impressed.

Companies like RIM and our home-grown successes demonstrate that there are opportunities to grow, compete and succeed globally while living in our great province.

NSBI has worked aggressively to attract national and international leaders like RIM to our province, and I know Stephen and his professional team work just as hard helping local operations grow.

Everyone's work together means that we are no longer talking about possibilities; Nova Scotia is creating opportunities. We are no longer talking about RIM’s plans; today, we are talking about RIM planting the seeds for a prosperous future in Nova Scotia.

We are proud to support RIM in its innovative vision for wireless communications, and I look forward to marking the next chapter of RIM’s investment in Nova Scotia.

Thank you.

Manitoba misses the call to develop high-tech industry
Story writen by STEVE DEMMINGS
at the Winnipeg Free Press

ABOUT two years ago, Premier Gary Doer said he was putting an end to the use of subsidies to attract new business because he did not believe government handouts were a solid long-term economic strategy.
It's "getting to the point where every job was costing $7,000," Doer said, commenting on the cost of developing the customer contact centre business. "Our economic vision is broader than that."
As the Winnipeg Free Press reported at the time: "It is not often that such a defined start and stop can be detected in an industry's growth, as has occurred in the customer contact centre business in Manitoba."
However, it appears that excessive subsidies are now the only tools that Doer and the NDP have left to attract business to Manitoba, while other jurisdictions offer compelling business environments to attract and retain educated youth.
Doer's predecessor, Tory premier Gary Filmon, developed a strategic economic development plan that initially utilized financial incentives to create a customer contact centre industry. Filmon's vision was to create a technology cluster that yielded 10,000 jobs, a strategy realized by 1999, the year the Progressive Conservatives were defeated and replaced by the NDP. The Filmon government established such a strong reputation internationally (along with New Brunswick) for attracting technology business that it was in the process of weaning itself from the necessity of using incentives to attract companies. In fact, when the Tories announced the successful agreement to develop a new 53,000-square-foot facility to employ 600 employees for the RBC Royal Bank Customer Contact Centre in Winnipeg, the deal was negotiated without the necessity of incentives. Manitoba's growing reputation in job creation and contact centre infrastructure had created a competitive advantage for Manitoba.
But both our reputation and our infrastructure have been squandered by Doer. Today, the customer-contact or call-centre industry in Manitoba has stalled at an estimated 11,000 jobs, while Nova Scotia (15,500 jobs) and New Brunswick (20,000 jobs) have surged ahead. The NDP has failed to optimize the potential to create more lucrative and fulfilling careers for Manitobans because of its abandonment of the sector.
In 2001, Manitoba had a wonderful economic development opportunity handed to it on a silver platter. That's when the province successfully competed against its chief rival at the time (New Brunswick) for the right to create 1,200 new jobs with CanWest Global Communications. This came at a potential cost of $5,500 per job or $6.6 million. The jobs involved a customer contact centre, financial services centre and digital specialty television channels in Manitoba.
The CanWest expansion was great news for Manitobans. It offered enormous opportunity to leverage the existing customer contact initiative. It created the opportunity for Manitoba to go up the food chain. A cluster of new media businesses could have grown from CanWest's expansion. It was an opportunity lost on the NDP.
Unfortunately, word has spread about Manitoba's diminished interest in the industry. Specifically, we should ask ourselves why Research in Motion (developer of the BlackBerry) did not even consider Manitoba as an expansion option among 30 possible sites it considered. It located in Nova Scotia, instead. Only seven years ago, Manitoba would have been in the bull's-eye for such an international competition, but not anymore.
Nova Scotia aggressively went after RIM, which represented the direction they wished to take their economy. RIM was the type of world-leading hi-tech firm that would help re-brand the province as a technology cluster and a perfect match for its educated, under-employed workforce. Their sales team "cold-called" RIM's head offices in September 2005 in Waterloo, Ont., and delivered a compelling business case for bringing RIM to Nova Scotia.

In Nova Scotia, the recruitment process is well under way to staff the tech-support centre that will create 1,200 careers for graduates of the province's universities and colleges. Nova Scotians are even more excited following RIM's announcement last month in Bedford that it had purchased a site to build a 150,000 square-foot building on a new technology campus to be completed by the spring of 2008. One can only imagine how easily this sod turning could have occurred on the remaining undeveloped lands at the University of Manitoba's Smart Park if Mr. Doer had had the vision and the marketing savvy to compete for the RIM business.

RIM will make a $230 million investment in the new project. In return, Nova Scotia expended $19 million in incentives. Salaries will be offered from $45,000 to $48,000 annually at a one-time cost of $15,833 per job.

Meanwhile, let's consider the OlyWest pork processing plant deal in Manitoba. It reportedly represents one of the largest single private-sector job creation projects in the province's history and will secure Manitoba as the third largest pork producer in Canada. It is estimated that once the plant is open, 16,000 Manitobans will be employed in the pork industry.

The media have reported that OlyWest will create 1,100 new jobs with annual wages ranging from $21,500 to $27,300 and that the province is contributing $27.5 million of $31 million of incentives -- 89 per cent -- to seal the deal.

The RIM deal cost Nova Scotians $15,833 per job versus $28,182 per job for Manitoba's OlyWest deal, which will pay salaries that are 48 per cent to 57 per cent of those offered for Nova Scotia's youth.

The hog industry is a significant part of Manitoba's efforts to diversify its agricultural economy, but Doer has failed to realize the potential of the technology sector.

Doer said two years ago he was "committed to putting an end to government subsidies," but the opposite has occurred and he lacks a coherent economic development strategy for their application.

The NDP has failed to capitalize on the momentum created by the CanWest expansion. Equally disappointing, it has failed to elevate Manitoba on the radar screen for other technology prospects, such as RIM.

Steve Demmings is president of Site Selection Canada www.siteselectioncanada.com based in Winnipeg. Site Selection Canada advises technology firms seeking new Canadian locations for expansion. The company also advises communities on developing strategies to attain economic development.