March 12, 2011

The Ontario government says it is supporting high-value jobs by partnering with Avaya, a technology company developing new products in Belleville, Ont. Avaya Canada’s Belleville location is among the company’s global R&D Centres of Excellence. The team their is active in the development of Avaya Flare Experience, one of the company’s flagship products, which integrates voice, text and video communications.

Ontario announced a $5-million investment with Avaya to help strengthen
the company’s R&D capabilities in Belleville and Ottawa, securing at
least 350 R&D jobs in Ontario. In Belleville, Avaya has just hired
several new university engineering graduates and experienced software
design engineers, with more recruitment to follow.

Avaya is the latest Belleville business that Ontario has helped expand
and create jobs. The province says its support has included: Bioniche
Life Sciences, Kellogg Canada, Electrolab Training Systems, Sigma
Stretch Film, BelleTile and Autosystems (a division of Magna
International). Provincial support for these companies has helped create
or retain more than 1200 jobs in Belleville.

Avaya is investing a total of $165 million for its Ontario R&D
capabilities. Ontario’s information and communications technology sector
employed about 272,000 people in 2010, roughly half of the Canadian
total.