HALIFAX - A decade after a $98 million government fund was created to help Cape Breton transform its economy after the collapse of coal mining, the jobs legacy includes four call centres and a half dozen other small businesses.
The legacy of the landmark Cape Breton Growth Fund -- quietly wrapped up by the Conservatives in early 2008 -- is defended by its federal overseers at Enterprise Cape Breton as having injected jobs at a time when there were few economic alternatives available.
However, critics of the program are disturbed that no formal evaluation was conducted when the program closed, and worry that call centre jobs aren't a firm foundation for a post-coal mining economy.
An access-to-information request to the Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. resulted in a list of the 25 companies and 16 government and non-profit recipients of the money, with indications they expected to create a total of 3,894 jobs.
In follow-up emails, the agency confirmed 2,125 growth fund jobs still exist at call centres.
The emails also show there are number of lasting infrastructure projects that the program contributed to, such as the Sydney Marine Terminal, the Northside Civic Centre and the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre.
The Canadian Press contacted the majority of the other firms on the list that created jobs, and confirmed that about 200 other jobs were created and still exist.
The original access-to-information request seeking an evaluation and more precise job figures resulted in a signed letter from John Lynn, the chief executive of Enterprise Cape Breton, which says "a final evaluation of the Cape Breton Growth Fund was never completed."
Rev. Greg MacLeod, a Roman Catholic priest who founded a community economic development agency in Cape Breton two decades ago, says the record leaves him "quite disappointed."
"Every program like that should be reviewed and evaluated, not as a witch hunt, but to see what we can we do better and can we learn from that," MacLeod said in an interview.
"I don't consider call centres the transformation of an economy. It's very dependent on outside investors and the vagaries of an international economy."
John Morgan, the mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said he once formally requested the federal auditor general assess the program because he was dissatisfied with its results, although he believes spending on infrastructure projects was useful.
But "much of the funding was simply wasted," he said. "It never reached the average citizen."
Don Landry, the corporate secretary at Enterprise Cape Breton, said in an email that the call centres have been valuable during a difficult time for the island's economy.
Between 2000 and 2010, call centres that received funding had a cumulative local payroll of more than $500 million, he wrote in an email.
He acknowledges that many of the industrial jobs listed have disappeared due to closures and bankruptcies, and there are several examples where the promised hiring by firms hasn't happened yet.
"As with all new business start ups, there are inherent risks in economic development projects and the fund has experienced some failed projects," writes Landry.
There have been a series of difficulties since the program ended.
The greatest blow was the bankruptcy of Cape Breton Castings, which manufactured die-cast parts. The fund's records indicate it received almost $20 million in loans, but none of the 90 promised jobs exist today.
Magna International, an auto parts plant in North Sydney, recently closed, along with 40 jobs tied to the program, and Federal Gypsum in Port Hawkesbury, where 80 jobs were promised, went through a bankruptcy and restructuring.
Technology firm 4Eversports Inc., which received $1.3 million, is bankrupt, slicing a further 28 jobs from the list. It made touch-screen kiosks that allowed players to score their golf rounds and later track them online.
Meanwhile, Keata Pharma, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, received a $5-million loan, but filed for bankruptcy last year. Its assets have been sold to Stirling Products, which has announced it plans to reopen in the summer and hire between 60 and 80 employees.
And Cape Breton Flight Institute, which received $750,000 in hopes of creating 57 jobs at a training school, has experienced difficulties in getting off the ground. A spokesman for the firm says it now has four employees.
Landry says tourism ventures including Island Sunset -- which proposed a five-star resort in Belle Cote -- and fly-in vacation destination Crown Jewel Resort "didn't proceed as planned."
Hiring at golf courses is still to be completed, says Landry.
"Ben Eoin Golf Club anticipates hiring a full staff complement when it officially opens later this year. The Cabot Links course in Inverness is under construction," he writes.
Of the non-call centre companies on the list, three small manufacturers and an information technology company in Sydney are operating with more than 10 employees.
They include Ocean Nutrition, a manufacturer of products made from fish oils, which is part of a investment by John Risley and parent firm Clearwater Fine Foods of Bedford, N.S. The factory in Mulgrave met its goal of creating 20 jobs.
Robert Orr, chief executive of Ocean Nutrition, said in an interview that his factory owes a great deal to the government program and has grown since it created the original 20 positions.
"They were supportive in helping acquire that facility," he said. "It had a lot of equipment, which gave us a quick jump-start."
The factory, which received other government assistance, now has 170 employees.
MacLeod said the success stories often involve local entrepreneurs and co-operatives, and that should send a signal to the federal economic development corporation to shift its focus to Nova Scotia investors.
"These businesses parachuted in with no connection with the local business community are usually fragile," he said.
