Waterloo Mayor optimistic despite news of RIM cuts
RIM
Waterloo’s mayor has a message for Canadians in the market for a cellphone: It’s time to get down to the store and ask for a BlackBerry in the name of national pride.
On a day when the country’s biggest technology company (and the Ontario city’s largest employer) announced 5,000 job cuts and the postponement of a key product, Mayor Brenda Halloran said “every single Canadian” should be looking for ways to support Research In Motion Ltd.
“I think we need to be supportive as Canadians,” said Ms. Halloran, a second-term mayor who has lived in the region for more than 40 years. “I think every single Canadian should be buying Canadian technology. We need to remember they need our support and rally around them and continue to use their products.”
RIM said Thursday it would cut jobs and delay the launch of smartphones running its new BlackBerry 10 operating system until early next year, as it posted a $518-million loss and warned of further losses in coming quarters.
The news has reverberated through the Southern Ontario city, which earlier today had celebrated a report from the Conference Board of Canada, predicting the region would post the strongest economic growth in Canada over the next 12 months.
Read story in the Globe and Mail