But Q9 felt the workload would give them enough critical mass to warrant building a data centre here, Hurd continued. "That's the business they are in ... it worked out very well for both of us," he said.

EAS has no connections to the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which eliminates several privacy concerns.

"EDS Advanced Solutions was set up in late 2004 as a separate entity from EDS Canada for a couple reasons," said Hurd. "One, it was a unionized operation; second, to provide a layer of insulation from these foreign disclosure orders."

"The concerns of the province were the U.S.A. Patriot Act and foreign disclosure of any kind. They wanted to make sure whoever was delivering the services wouldn't be in a position to have to comply with those kinds of orders," Hurd explained.

"There was some concern that an American company might be subject to the act," said Rob Duffus, communications director for the B.C. Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services.