Metro negotiations with Canadian technology consulting company IQT have stopped, according to an announcement from the mayor’s office yesterday. That means the company will not be bringing 900 jobs to Nashville.
IQT laid off more than a thousand workers from three Canadian call centers last week without warning or severance pay. The company claims it’s bankrupt, but no actual legal steps have been taken to file for bankruptcy. That’s according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, who is currently investigating IQT’s recent layoffs and finances.
Last month, Metro made a deal to pay IQT 1.6 million dollars in exchange for opening a new headquarters and call center in Nashville. Megan Barry chairs the budget committee for the Metro Council. She thinks city officials were not aware of IQT’s shaky financial state when the agreement was made.
“I think there’s always a consideration, when you’re vetting a company you have to have as much information as possible. Obviously you’re not going to have complete and total transparency for all companies because they may not tell you. And I think that’s exactly what happened in this case, we had no visibility to what was happening with the management there.”
In a statement released today, the director of the Mayor’s office of economic and community development said that none of the incentive money has been paid to the company.
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