The sale of “Canada’s first community owned broadband network” to TELUS closes today (November 6th).
As per the requirements of the Municipal Government Act, the Town of Olds provided an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on this decision to sell O-NET – a municipally controlled corporation.
On Tuesday, November 5th that public forum and information session saw more than 50 people fill the gallery at the Town of Olds council chambers.
Brent Williams, the Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Olds, says they received a total of 16 submissions during the 40 day window for comment and about a half dozen Olds residents stepped up to the microphone during Tuesday’s public forum.
Olds resident Bill Tufts was one of those who wanted to ask questions and get some answers. He notes the amount of debt that was standing on O-NET was a major concern for him. Tufts says “so if they had been stuck, the Town had been stuck with that $18 million it would have pretty much put the Town right into insolvency. There is no way that even over 15-20 years of trying to pay that off they could’ve possibly done it without major cuts to services, without major tax increases. So quite happy to see they are only left with maybe $3.5 million of that $18 they said $19 million today. So seems like a good deal to get out from undernearth that white elephant.”
CAO Williams explains how the Town of Olds is going to account for that current debt scenario. He says “so right now we are engaged with the Ministry of Finance and Treasury on that loan. Obviously, we’re at the very least asking for generous restructuring terms but what we are really pushing for is to consider that to a grant to the Town. Right now you are seeing massive announcements of provincial and federal money in places close to us – Red Deer County, Clearwater County, elsewhere – that wasn’t accessible to O-NET 10-15 years ago because we were ahead of our curve. We believe that there is a case to be made to Treasury and Finance that Olds because of O-NET be given special consideration on the remaining of that debenture.”
CAO Williams says the sale price of O-NET will be released with the full financial accounting in the spring of 2025 – along with the Town’s financial statements as well. According to Williams, that was a decision that TELUS requested that the Town of Olds agree to and obviously with the closing date (November 6th) there is at least a 90-day period where we try to balance the organization’s finances to determine what the final sale price is going to be but unfortunately it wasn’t released today.
Meanwhile, the Vice President for Fibre Networks for TELUS says they are buying the legacy of excellence, expertise, a wealth of experience, and the local focus for customer service from O-NET.
According to Shazia Zeb Sobani, they are very excited to welcome O-NET into the TELUS family and be bringing O-NET and TELUS expertise together.
She is very hopeful that the future is going to be friendlier. Zeb Sobani says “I think the only thing I want to leave the community with is that is TELUS is very excited because O-NET has been an investment of its own kind. It has led the industry and the area to really open up their eyes to the value of fibre. TELUS is very excited to have it as part of our family but we will not be successful if we do not get the full support, and the expertise, and the wealth of experience that the team brings with us and we are really looking forward to creating a balanced partnership where we can tap into their expertise and we can bring forward from some of our best practices to create a much better and a more beautiful chapter of O-NET for the Town.”
She says the immediate first steps for them will be to welcome the O-NET team into the TELUS family, to ensure that we are connecting with them, to ensure that we are listening to them and tapping into the wisdom that they have. Sobani adds, at the same time they will be introducing what TELUS culture is, as well as their focus on communities and their focus on putting their customers first.
The Town of Olds announced in early October that it had reached a deal with TELUS Communications to buy O-NET.
Listen to 96.5 CKFM’s conversation with Shazia Zeb Sobani, Vice President for Fibre Networks for TELUS.
CKFM also gathered audio from Town of Olds CAO Brent Williams.
96.5 CKFM spoke with Olds resident Bill Tufts following the public forum and information session.
