New Brunswick utility sees 60 copper wire thefts in just six months
Waking up with no television, internet, and home phone was worrisome for Ray Montgomery.
The Geary, N.B., man was among about 1,000 people affected by copper wire thefts downing telecom lines in the Oromocto area on Monday.
"My parents who live just in front, both have the Lifeline,” Montgomery said of a device used to alert first responders in the event of an emergency.
“It works off the phone system, so right now they have no Lifeline. It's not operable at all,” he said.
Crews spent hours replacing the copper wire that was stripped from the poles.
It's not the first times thieves have struck the area, and it's not the only place they've hit Monday.
The company admits it’s an ongoing problem.
"This really started in the summer of 2022,” said Glen LeBlanc, Bell CFO and Vice Chair Atlantic. “There's really been an escalation though the fall. Just since October, we've had 60 copper thefts, if you can believe it, and 20 since January alone.”
According to a social media post from Bell's CEO, it has impacted network reliability for more than 900 hours in New Brunswick.
"Thieves appear to be targeting locations where large amounts of copper wire are available,” said RCMP Cpl. Hans Ouellette. “We've seen most recently as well that they're targeting lines directly related to some of our telecommunication services.”
“So police and the RCMP continue to work with partner agencies [and] telecommunication agencies to address these types of thefts,” he said.
According to LeBlanc, the Fredericton surrounding area is one of the hardest hit and the company is taking extra measures.
"[It’s] extremely high,” LeBlanc said. “This would be the worst we've experience in any province in the country. The cost alone -- this will cost us over $1.5 to $2 million dollars in labour and materials, just to repair the damages that are done.”
"We've hired security, we're increasing cameras that we have in our network, alarms, but the problem is that we have thousands and thousands of copper hanging on the pole,” the CFO added.
Montgomery is worried about how all this damage will affect the customer's bottom line.
"Obviously there's costs to this whole process, so who do the costs eventually get passed down to? It's us, the consumer,” Montgomery said.
The CEO of Bell is asking provincial and federal governments to help improve the resiliency of Canada’s telecommunications networks.
"Naturally, like any business, if you have escalating costs of this magnitude, one day it has to be looked at and addressed, but that is absolutely not where our head is right now,” said LeBlanc.
CTV Atlantic News is owned by Bell Media.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
B.C. man fighting for refund after finding someone living at Whistler vacation rental
Edwin Mostered spent thousands of dollars booking a vacation home in Whistler, B.C., for a group skiing trip earlier this year – or so he thought.
Avs forward Valeri Nichushkin suspended at least six months
Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin was suspended for at least six months without pay and placed in Stage 3 of the league's player assistance program.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Mortgage companies could intensify the next recession, U.S. officials warn
U.S. officials worry the next recession could be intensified by a cascading series of failures in the mortgage industry caused by crashing home prices, frozen financial markets and soaring delinquencies.