Thousands of Alberta jobs under THREAT if Rogers buys Shaw

Rogers is playing with smoke and mirrors. Whether it’s claims of increased broadband investments or a future regional office in Calgary, the sole purpose of these promises is to mask the smell of a rotten deal.⁸ If Minister Champagne and Trudeau allow this deal based on Rogers’ wishy-washy promises, Albertans will be left holding the bag. 

There is absolutely nothing holding Rogers accountable to fulfilling their word. Once all is said and done, there is no way to guarantee that Rogers will not default on everything they’ve promised Albertans — just like the T-Mobile/Sprint merger in the United States.^9,10 T-Mobile promised its mega-$$$ buyout of Sprint would create new jobs, but in fact, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company actually cut jobs post-merger.¹¹ Sound familiar?

Let’s be clear. Buyouts exist to save companies money — not to spend money on new Alberta offices, build out Internet to rural communities, or invest in the West. They’re doing this to make billions by mowing down the competition.

Spinning off Freedom Mobile does not make the deal any less harmful to Albertans. Letting Freedom be sold to another telecom giant like Quebecor is no better of a solution than selling it to Rogers.¹² The outcome is the same: thousands of Alberta jobs are still under threat, and Shaw, a HUGE innovator and competitor in the market, will be lost to Big Telecom. Meanwhile, we will continue to pay some of the highest prices in the world for cell phone services.¹³

Unfortunately, Rogers-Shaw is still very much alive, despite the Competition Bureau’s rightful challenge of the deal. On May 9th, the Competition Bureau made headlines siding with Canadians against Rogers’ bid for even more power and influence. Now, the challenge moves to a lengthy Tribunal process that will determine if the Bureau’s block will hold — meaning the Rogers-Shaw deal could still go through, UNLESS Minister Champagne and Trudeau act to stop it.¹⁴

Here’s the bottom line: Minister Champagne and Prime Minister Trudeau ALREADY have the power to render this buyout deal dead in the water. All they need to do is insist that wireless spectrum owned by Shaw must stay with Shaw, and may not be divested to Rogers or any other party. As the only ones who can fully stop this buyout, we need their unconditional opposition. To get it, we must ACT. If we bring our MPs into the fray to publicly pressure Minister Champagne and the Prime Minister, we can make it politically impossible for them to side with Big Telecom.