Noah Korver
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Yukon News
Canadian telecom giant, Bell Mobility received a letter from the Yukon government alongside two federal regulators on Wednesday expressing dismay over longstanding connectivity issues on cellular networks across the territory.
The letters are addressed to the heads of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), and Bell Canada which owns and operates the vast majority of Yukon’s cellular networks through Bell Mobile Inc.
Signed by Yukon Highways and Public Works Minister Linda Benoit, and Economic Development Minister Jen Gehmai, the letter to Bell Canada states the government wished to convey “ongoing and unresolved concerns regarding the reliability and coverage of Bell Mobility Inc.’s cellular network in Yukon,” and implores Bell to “take demonstrable, transparent steps to address network reliability and coverage limitations in the territory.”
The government also sent letters to the heads of two telecom regulators. The CRTC is the quasi judicial governing body in charge of ensuring that telecommunications companies in Canada operate in the public interest. The CRTC is chaired by Vicky Eatrides whom the letter regarding CRTC involvement was addressed to. ISED is the governing body in charge of managing the actual radio frequencies that all wireless telecommunications are sent across and is directed by federal Industry Minister Mélanie Jolie.
In their letter to Eatrides, the Yukon ministers appealed for the CRTC to consider implementing any available regulatory tools that are “available and appropriate to improve transparency and service outcomes for Yukoners.”
The letter addressed to minister Jolie highlights ISED’s position as the “federal department responsible for spectrum management and key telecommunications policy”, saying that “ISED is well positioned to support improved outcomes in northern and remote regions.”
The letter implores Jolie and ISED to set stricter expectations on transparency and infrastructure planning when it issues the spectrum licenses that allow Canadian telecom companies to broadcast on public airwaves.
The issue of poor or nonexistent cellular service across the territory has been a hot button issue for Yukoners for years and this is not the first time the territorial government has formally written to Bell expressing concerns. In 2024, then-premier Ranj Pillai penned a letter to Bell Canada CEO denouncing the poor service provided by Bell.
However, very little progress appears to have been made with the letter addressed to Eatrides saying that the “government of Yukon continues to observe and receive consistent reports regarding unreliable call completion and data performance within Whitehorse, significant coverage gaps along major highways and remote travel corridors and degradation during peak usage periods and emergency events.”
Yukoners consistently report spotty or non-existent cell coverage even within urban areas such as Whitehorse, leading to consistent reports of calls not connecting, devices unable to send or receive text messages and phone connections dropping mid call including during emergency phone calls to 911.
The News spoke with multiple Whitehorse residents who detailed experiences of having to redial 911 sometimes up to three or four times in order to speak with a dispatcher and receive assistance during critical emergencies.
Anne Lewis is a resident of Whitehorse’s Hillcrest neighbourhood and the owner of Decora flower shop. Last summer she was working on the company’s property in Hillcrest when her father, Randy Lewis, collapsed from an apparent stroke.
“A person came out to get me, and said, “Hey, I think your dad passed out. I think you should call 911,” Anne said, who ran around back to find her father unresponsive and slumped over in a chair.
Anne said that she immediately dialled 911 and spoke with a dispatcher while using her first aid training to begin a primary assessment on her father. She was in the middle of counting breaths while the dispatcher tried to determine whether Randy should be moved to a prone position when Anne realized the call had disconnected.
Anne immediately redialled 911 and struggled to get through to a dispatcher, having to redial twice.
“The call wouldn’t go through the first time I did it, and then I called back again, got them, they told me the ambulance was on its way. We continued to talk, and then the call dropped again, so I phoned back, and then the ambulance proceeded to show up at that point.”
Anne says that while her father Randy ended up being OK thanks in part to her own training and ability to remain calm while administering immediate first aid, she worries that the outcome could be much worse for folks who lack medical training or the presence of mind to work through an emergency on their own.
“My real concern was that, if you were dealing with a situation where you really needed dispatch to walk you through what to do, or if you were in a much more serious situation, and looking for guidance on how to navigate that. How vulnerable [does] that make us as a territory, not being able to trust that the network is going to hold when you’re in crisis?”
Anne’s case is not an isolated incident either. The News also spoke with Pete Frank, president of the Tagish Volunteer Fire Department Society and a volunteer firefighter. Frank says that firefighters across the Yukon rely on personal cell phones and cellular connections regularly when responding to emergency call outs.
“Our personal cellphones are used in the fire departments throughout the Yukon, for receiving, dispatches, alerts, photo documentation, sharing information at an incident scene, etc,” Frank said in an email. “Numerous times in the last couple years, our members have not received dispatches from dispatch. They have experienced dropped calls and I personally have talked to a resident that have had their calls to 911/dispatch dropped three times while reporting a fully engulfed grass fire in the Southern Lakes Resort area.”
Speaking with the News in a phone interview on Thursday, minister Benoit said that she and her fellow members of government regularly hear stories like these from constituents.
“It’s certainly an ongoing issue for Yukoners. All of us in the Yukon Party government have heard about this from our constituents, from businesses, and from Yukoners at large. So it is on our minds fairly often”
Benoit says that alongside her, minister Gehmai hopes that this renewed push will finally yield some answers as to what is causing the ongoing connectivity issues and what needs to change in order to improve service.
Unlike the letter sent by Pillai in 2024, which only addressed Bell, Benoit says that the government chose to also reach out to the federal government in the hopes that they may be able to help provide some solutions or assistance.
“The ask is what regulatory levers are available to us in order to try and rectify this situation?” Benoit said, referencing the letter sent to the CRTC.
“Aside from that, [we are] stressing it with the federal government. Perhaps there’s some funding available somewhere that can help with some of these upgrades once we know what the problem is.”
In response to a request for interview about what regulatory safeguards exist, the CRTC provided a written statement saying that “the CRTC requires service providers to report major outages and file reports following such an outage. The CRTC is also considering further measures to improve network resiliency and consumer protections during outages.”
According to the statement, the CRTC is also working to standardize reporting on where cellphone services are available in order to “ better reflect the experiences of Canadians.”
The CRTC says this will “help service providers, governments, public safety organizations, and Canadians better identify where coverage is strong and where improvements are needed.”
The latest round of engagement by the Yukon government brings this issue into the bi-partisan arena. Yukon NDP MLA for Mountain View, Linda Moen, has raised the issue previously during the spring sitting of the legislature.
“I heard it when I was campaigning, and probably in all my ridings that I campaigned on, especially in my community,” Moen said, describing the widespread issues that she says consistently come up in engagement with voters.
Moen highlighted the safety issues presented by the lack of consistent connectivity in the territory and said she is open to engaging with the current government to find solutions and also wants to see options from third parties be explored.
“Yukoners deserve to have answers beyond what the government can do. There’s partnerships with the Yukon First Nation Development Corps that could be explored. There’s different options that this government can look at and explore on behalf of Yukon.”
The News reached out to Bell Canada for comment. In an email response, a Bell spokesperson denied that Bell had received the government’s letter and said in a written statement that “wireless expansion in rural regions is a challenge for private investment alone and we are open to partnerships with territorial and federal government.”
The News provided a copy of the letter to Bell Canada for review on June 24.
On June 25, the News received another written statement from Bell Canada spokesperson, Elise von Scheel denying that a copy of the government’s letter had been received.
The News also reached out to the government to verify that their letters had in fact been sent. Yukon press secretary Tim Kucharuk confirmed the letters were sent by email and in physical form on June 18.
In the June 25 statement, Bell Canada says the company is looking forward to “continuing [its] ongoing discussions with the Yukon government regarding cellular service in the area.” The statement also reiterated the previous assertion that wireless expansion remains a complex and expensive proposition in the territory and said that “government funding can help unlock opportunities that would otherwise be unfeasible.”
Bell Canada was unable to provide the News with information about what challenges it faces, how much system upgrades would cost or the level of financial support they believe would be necessary to complete upgrade work.
