Based on “For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Privatization of the Manitoba Telephone Services and its Impacts” by Doug Smith
1880 Bell Canada founded. A National Act of Canadian Parliament gave Bell the right to operate in Canada.
1906 Manitobans voted in a referendum to purchase Bell Canada’s assets in Manitoba as a crown corporation to provide services to households, not just businesses, and rural Manitoba.
1907 Manitoba purchased Bell’s Manitoba operations for $3.4 million and named the new service “Manitoba Government Telephones” (MGT).
1908 MGT built 1,469 miles of long-distance lines, telephone rates declined, and the number of subscribers increased by 25%.
1921 Manitoba Government Telephones became the “Manitoba Telephone System” (MTS).
1990 MTS employs 4,000 workers and Manitoba has one of the lowest telephone rates in Canada.
1993 MTS sold its coaxial cable system for $11 million.
1995 MTS restructured into four divisions.
1996 Boston-based Faneuil-ISG granted a $47-million contract that included the right to use the MTS customer database for seven years, although MTS’s strategic plan aspired it to be an end-to-end telecommunications provider, especially to large corporations and institutions.he Manitoban government asked three brokerage firms to recommend the company’s future. The brokers recommended that the company be privatized. A month after receiving the report, the Manitoba government tabled a bill authorizing the privatization of MTS.
1997 A Viewpoints Research poll finds that 70% of Manitobans oppose the sale of MTS. The Manitoba government sells MTS, putting up 70 million common shares for sale.
1998 The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) concludes that “at $13 per share, MTS was priced at a discount relative to other telephone companies”
The gross proceeds on the sale of the MTS crown were $910 million. Capital assets were valued at $1.1 billion. The newly privatized company assumed $428 million of debt. MTS unions (TEAM, IBEW and Unifor) and retirees launched a court action against MTS to live up to pension plan commitments and control over the $43 million worker contribution surplus in the pension. The legal process lasted 17 years.
1999 MTS partners with Bell Canada to create Bell West, owned 60% by Bell and 40% by MTS. Bell acquired 20% ownership of MTS.
2004 MTS pulled out of Bell West and bought back the shares that Bell owned in MTS. MTS bought Allstream Inc. for $1.7 billion with a 30,000 km fiber-optic network.
2014 MTS appealed the MTS unions and Telephone Retirees Association of Manitoba all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, where MTS lost. The Supreme Court ruled it had to increase pension benefits by $43 million, which adjusted to inflation was $135.5 million distributed to current and former members of the pension plan.
2015 MTS announces it is cutting 250 jobs. MTS employs 2,363 unionized workers, and Manitobans pay some of the highest rates in Canada for telecommunications services
2016 MTS sold Allstream to an American fibre-optic network for $465 million. Bell applied to the Federal Competition Bureau to purchase MTS. When the takeover was proposed, MTS had 50 percent of the Manitoba wireless market, Rogers 30 percent, and Bell and Telus each had ten percent. The Bureau’s analysis found that “mobile wireless pricing in Saskatchewan, Thunder Bay, Quebec, and Manitoba is substantially lower than in the rest of Canada. These are all areas that have a strong regional competitor.” The sale of MTS would eliminate the strong regional competitor in Manitoba. To win federal approval, there was an agreement that Xplornet Communications, which provided internet services in rural Manitoba, would enter the wireless market.
2017 Bell Canada Enterprises buys MTS for $3.9 billion paid to MTS shareholders and promises Manitoba will serve as Western Headquarters for Bell. Bell MTS has 44 percent of the market, Rogers 36, Telus 10, and Xplornet two percent. Bell was required to sell a portion of its customers and retail outlets to Telus.
2018 Bell MTS employs 1,478 unionized workers.
2017 – 2021 Bell Canada shrinks the number of decent-paying unionized jobs to 37% of Bell Canada employees. Positions are subcontracted to non-unionized contracts out of province or out of country.
2023 Bell MTS is not a regional headquarters and its presence in Manitoba is declining.
