Awarding of Another Contract to Bell Despite Numerous Deficiencies a Loss for Taxpayers, Consumers, and Competition
Labrador, NL (August 2, 2022) – Big Link Limited Partnership (BLLP), an Indigenous-owned entity, is expressing deep concerns with the Government of Canada’s recent announcement to expand broadband services in Southern Labrador with the awarding of a contract to Bell Aliant (a subsidiary of BCE). At a time when a small number of telecommunications companies dominate the Canadian cell and internet landscape, and factoring in costs and service delivery, the Federal government is paying monopolistic telcos like Bell to continue their exclusivity, to the detriment of local providers.
“BigLink is a locally-based, majority Indigenous owned entity that has demonstrated through other regions of the province that we can provide affordable, fast, reliable broadband services to consumers,” said David Hall, President. “We are confident that either BigLink or other providers would have been best placed to operate the expansion in a region we live in and call home. Time and time again, the Federal government has decided to overpay and award broadband contracts to the major telcos to maintain their firm grip on Canadians choice and wallets.”
BLLP is a partnership established between Big Land Networks (BLN) and the Innu Development Limited Partnership (IDLP) to advance connectivity and telecommunications in Labrador. They have demonstrated through other communities their ability to deliver high-quality services at affordable prices, and are locally based in the region.
“With the recent outage from Rogers and mounting frustrations towards Canada’s major telcos on the lack of quality services and high monthly costs to customers, it’s clear Canadians are not being well-served by allowing a few big players to have absolute control over telecommunications services in Canada,” added Robert Burton, Vice President. “Despite this, the Federal government is continuing to pay companies like Bell to expand their reach and limit consumer choice, while ignoring smaller Canadian businesses and Indigenous-owned businesses who are offering better rates to customers and bids for the contracts that cost less to taxpayers.”
Earlier this year, the Federal government also announced a broadband deal with Bell Canada to fund the expansion for the Northern coast of Labrador. This deal cost significantly more than other bids and again our government continues to use taxpayer money to expand the monopolies of major telcos in Canada to Canadians’ detriment.
It should be enough that the Federal government choose local, established service providers if the cost to taxpayers is lower and the services offered are more affordable for consumers. The government should also be working to break the monopoly in our telecommunications landscape by moving away from blindly handing new contracts to operators like Bell Canada at every opportunity.
“Canadians from coast to coast are fed up with Telcos and the Federal government enabling them to take advantage of customers and maintain their monopolies. What will it take for our government to be on the side of consumers and recognize how poorly Canada compares to the rest of the world on service availability and costs?” concluded Hall. “We are calling on the Government of Canada to rethink this decision and its government-sponsored support of an anti-competitive marketplace in Canada.”
