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The province of B.C. is backing Metro Vancouver's bid to become the home for Amazon's second North American headquarters.

Premier John Horgan said in a news bulletin released today (September 29) that the province will donate $50,000 to the joint bid of Vancouver and Surrey, a process that is being managed by the Vancouver Economic Commission.

Amazon announced on September 7 that it was seeking a home for its first major administrative facility outside of the Seattle area. The mammoth e-commerce company said the new headquarters, known as HQ2, would get $5 billion worth of investment and house as many as 50,000 new employees over time.

"B.C. offers unlimited possibilities for tech companies like Amazon," Horgan said in the bulletin, released after he made the funding announcement to delegates at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver earlier the same day. "We have a fast-growing tech sector and several U.S. companies, such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts and Sony Imageworks, have already established a presence here because of the talent base that B.C. offers. Amazon HQ2 is an opportunity to create thousands of well-paying jobs for the people of B.C., which will greatly benefit our communities and the tech sector and create spin-off benefits for related industries."

Officials in approximately 50 cities in the U.S. and Canada—including Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary—have expressed at least a willingness to explore the idea of submitting bids, which are due by October 19 this year.

Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology Bruce Ralston said in the release that landing HQ2 would "greatly increase our province's economic standing in North America and the world".

"B.C. offers many attractive advantages, from our proximity to Asia and partnership with Washington state, through the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, to our competitive business and tax incentives and booming tech sector," Ralston noted.

However, although politicians are attracted to any venture that can produce such a huge number of new jobs, not all Amazon workers are enthralled with the unique corporate culture devised and enforced by founder Jeff Bezos and his colleagues for the world's largest online retailer.

An August 2015 New York Times investigative report found varying opinions of what it was like to work for Amazon, including this one by former executive John Rossman, who went on to write a book, The Amazon Way, about his experiences:“A lot of people who work there feel this tension: It’s the greatest place I hate to work.”