Gatineau, May 17, 2010 – Videotron is pleased to announce the creation of 35 jobs and a $2.13 million investment, in partnership with the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, in a new Customer Contact Centre in Gatineau. The project will double the number of employees at Videotron's Outaouais offices and triple the area of the premises. Videotron is also announcing the injection of an additional amount of nearly $2.8 million, in partnership with Emploi-Québec, in a comprehensive training program for employees who will fill 80 new jobs. Part of this amount will be allocated to Gatineau and the remainder to jobs created in Montréal and Québec City.
Robert Dépatie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Videotron, and Sam Hamad, Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity, were present at the official opening of the new 7,522 square-foot premises in Gatineau. I am pleased to announce that Videotron's strong growth in Québec is continuing and is translating into job creation in Outaouais, said Robert Dépatie. These investments will consolidate our activities in major Québec regions. Our new Customer Contact Centre in Gatineau, coming on the heels of the opening of the Customer Contact Centre in Joliette, where 271 jobs were created last summer, is another example of Videotron's continuing effort to support regional development in Québec.
Québec and Videotron back quality training
Robert Dépatie took the opportunity to announce that Emploi-Québec is supporting an expanded training program for the 35 employees in Gatineau and 45 employees in new skilled mobile network jobs in the Montréal and Québec City areas. In all, nearly $2.8 million will be spent on the training program. Emploi-Québec is a leading partner with a $360,000 contribution ($142,000 for Gatineau and $211,000 for Montréal and Québec City).
Sam Hamad said his government considers support for the growth of Québec businesses an important priority: Emploi-Québec's contribution is needed to make investments such as those announced by Videotron a reality, despite economic ups and downs. With skilled employees trained to meet the challenges of new technology, Videotron will be able to maintain its industry-leading position.
We have worked on a number of projects with Emploi-Québec, said Robert Dépatie. Mr. Hamad and his ministry are key partners in Videotron's training and development programs and we look forward to cooperating with them on future projects.
Job openings
In the coming months, new permanent employees will begin working at Videotron's new Gatineau offices as Customer Service and Technical Support advisors. A dozen employees have already joined the Company and their training, Sylvain Brosseau, Vice President, Customer Service, Consumer Division, of Videotron. They will acquire a thorough knowledge of Videotron's various services and then be able to apply that knowledge to delivering Videotron's one-stop service across Québec.
In July and October, Videotron will welcome two more groups of new employees to its Outaouais team. Full details on job openings are available at corpo.videotron.com
Videotron Ltd. (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access services, cable telephony and wireless telephone service. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its digital interactive television system and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of March 31, 2010, Videotron was serving 1,785,500 cable television customers in Québec, including 1,119,900 subscribers to its digital service. Videotron is the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,191,600 subscribers to its cable modem service as of March 31, 2010. As of the same date, Videotron had activated 85,300 handsets on its wireless telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to 1,043,000 Québec households and organizations. For the fifth consecutive year, Videotron was named Québec's most respected telecommunications company by Les Affaires magazine, based on a Léger Marketing survey.
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