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The numbers tell the bottom-line story.

According to The Competitive Alternatives: A Comparison of Business Costs in North America, Europe and Japan, a March 1999 study by business location consultant KPMG Peat Marwick, Canada outperforms all G-7 countries, plus Austria, in one of the most critical measures of business-location potential: operating costs.

The KPMG study accounted for the total costs of establishing a business, including location-sensitive costs such as labor, electric power, taxes and transportation, from startup through the first 10 years of operation. It evaluated seven manufacturing industries and two software industries.

But while Canada as a whole came out on top in that analysis, one of the country's distinct regions -- Atlantic Canada -- performed even better (see chart). Atlantic Canada includes the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island (see map). Low operating costs in the smallest maritime province, Prince Edward Island, are illustrative of the region's strong competitive posture.

"We are very cost competitive compared to the United States, and even to other jurisdictions within Canada," says Enterprise Prince Edward Island's Allan Smith, the agency's director of new business development. "Our labor rates are about 80 percent of the national average. And where else can you join the yacht club for $500 a year (US$335), or one of the best golf courses anywhere for about $600 a year (US$402)?"

An equally powerful location pull is exerted by Atlantic Canada's labor availability -- a particularly strong draw for U.S. companies struggling to find enough workers in a labor environment characterized by all-time-low unemployment rates. "Prince Edward Island's unemployment rate is 13 percent or 14 percent, and our people are ready, willing and able to work," Smith says.

It's important to note that site-seeking companies don't have to compromise on such essentials as worker skills, sound infrastructure and technology support to access Atlantic Canada's labor-supply and business costs advantages. And while the provinces are somewhat remote from some U.S. markets, their geographic location has come to matter less in an era when telecommunications advances have made location less relevant, particularly for call centers and similar facilities.

What's more, Atlantic Canada's remoteness can actually be an advantage. Newfoundland, for instance, is almost equidistant from major U.S. and European cities -- allowing firms there a fairly broad window of opportunity to do business on both continents on the same day.

Additionally, Atlantic Canada's relative proximity to the northeastern United States has given the two regions a special economic connection, one that spells opportunity for companies on both sides of the border.

"We are very much interested in the U.S. market, of course, because 72 percent of all Atlantic region exports go to the United States," says Serge Langis, senior trade and investment officer with the Moncton, New Brunswick-based Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (www.acoa.ca). "That means there are some really good linkages there."

Atlantic Canada "is still very much a resource-fueled economy," Langis re-ports. The region's timber and fisheries resources remain economic mainstays, and multibillion-dollar initiatives are under way to tap its oil and gas reserves. But the maritime provinces have also proven themselves formidable competitors for North American call centers, and now Atlantic Canada is reaching for -- and attracting -- investments in information technology (IT), biotechnology and other high-tech sectors.

Here's a look at recent facility-location trends and news across Atlantic Canada.