B.C. employees have option of relocating to Summerside tax centre

Some Canada Revenue Agency employees in Surrey, B.C. may consider moving to the Island.

Almost 400 employees were given relocation notices as the Surrey location shifts from being a processing centre to one of three National Verification and Collections Centres in Canada.

The employees, who processed tax filings, may now apply to work at the processing centre in Summerside, P.E.I.

The agency's office in Summerside is one of four in Canada that is becoming a processing centre. Almost 200 employees in that location were also given notices.

Bob Campbell, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, said he isn't sure how many of those given notices in Surrey will end up competing for jobs with employees in Summerside.

That depends on where people want to move with their families, he said.

"I mean the cost of living in P.E.I. is a lot better than it would be going to Toronto or to downtown Vancouver," he said,

"But it depends on what your whole life situation is."

"I know at one time we did have some work leave Ottawa and go down to Summerside, and there was a couple people that did take the chance and move down there."

Job offers in B.C. made first

In an e-mailed statement to the CBC, Heidi Hofstad, communications manager with the Canada Revenue Agency, said 50 full-time jobs are being added to the Surrey location as it transitions to a verifications and collections centre.

She indicated in the e-mail that the vast majority of employees who received relocation notices are expected to receive a job offer within that location.

Campbell said it's not clear yet if temporary jobs will be lost in the switch-over of these centres.

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