Ontario grant worth $25 million to help create 300 jobs in tech industry
Cisco Canada says it will double its Ottawa workforce over the next five years as a result of a $25-million provincial investment that will send the technology company scouring local institutions for the best and brightest young engineering talent.
"The impact is absolutely immediate," said Ontario Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli, who attended the announcement Wednesday at the company's Toronto headquarters.
"This makes a strong statement that Ottawa's still a very substantive destination for research and development."
Cisco's Kanata office employs just over 200 people and is responsible for developing the company's major networking products.
The company is currently working on a next-generation router that would be able to transfer one billion videos at a time.
With the $25 million in government funding, Cisco said it will invest an additional $401 million in research and development over five years on a range of initiatives, including advanced telemedicine, improved virtual workforces and energy management.
The funding will also help create 300 jobs, at least half of which will end up in Cisco's Ottawa office - although the company went one step further Wednesday, saying it would "double" the Kanata workforce.
Ritch Dusome, director of product marketing and leader of Cisco's Ottawa branch, said he will soon begin the search for young promising engineers.
"I don't know if it's going to start tomorrow, but certainly we're going to start in the October time frame at Carleton and Ottawa U doing the career fairs and we'll probably start looking at interns," he said.
"Then after a six-month time period we'll probably engage in some of the things we talked about today."
In Wednesday's announcement at the company's downtown Toronto headquarters, Cisco Systems Inc, CEO John Chambers praised Ontario's workforce, which he called "highly skilled, with a great education base, both university and preparation for university."
He said the company wanted to make its Ottawa and Toronto operations "one of the five or six largest development centres in the world," a commitment made exceptional, he said, because it comes at a time when the company is contracting. Earlier this month, the company reported profit that beat analysts' estimates after Cisco eliminated jobs and pared business lines.
"Our focus is simple. We want to get the best engineering talent in the world. In our industry it's a war for talent."
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