Bell Canada says copper theft has grown at an astronomical rate over the past few years in Canada, with a large portion of the thefts occurring in the east end of the country.
The firm says it has counted 2,270 copper thefts nationwide, with more than 500 cases reported over the first six months of the year.
Ontario has by far seen the largest number of issues as 66 per cent of the thefts have occurred in the region, with Cambridge, Hamilton and Windsor being major hotspots for this type of crime, according to Bell.
Earlier this week, Ontario Provincial Police announced that they had arrested four men after 33 hydro poles were chopped down in Coleman Township, about 200 km northeast of Sudbury, Ont.
The thieves allegedly cut the poles down over the course of six days in early May, making off with $100,000 worth of copper wire.
A number of other police services have been issued warnings over the past year about copper thefts, including London, Dufferin County and Durham Region, where thieves have been stealing copper from air conditioning units.
While Bell says Ontario is the biggest area of concern, it says there have been a large number of occurrences in Quebec and New Brunswick as well
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”New Brunswick has emerged as one of the nation’s hotspots for copper thefts, with more than 80 incidents this year alone,” a release from Bell said. “The Fredericton–Oromocto corridor is particularly affected, with nearly 80 per cent of the province’s thefts occurring in this area.”
Quebec has accounted for 12 per cent of the cases, which places it as second in Canada. Bell says the thefts in that province often occur in the Saguenay region.
Bell is not the only company that has cried foul as one of its major competitors, Telus, has also tried to raise the alarm over the issue.
Last year, Telus reported a 58-per cent increase from 2023 in the amount of copper thefts affecting its operations across Alberta. In Edmonton, the company said it has seen a 238-per cent increase in the thefts.
“It’s not just something happening here in Edmonton, or Alberta or Canada,” said Brian Lakey, the vice-president of reliability of Telus’ Service Reliability Centre of Excellence. He also serves as the co-chair of the Canadian Telecom Resiliency Work Group.
“The reason it’s happening is because copper is a valuable commodity. This is something that’s happening globally.”
An incident in Calgary saw an entire neighbourhood lose its landline telephone service after thieves had stolen wiring.
While it might seem like a victimless crime, the issue in Calgary pointed to why everyone needs to be concerned, as people lost access to communication with doctors and others while the phones were down.
“Copper theft is a serious crime that directly threatens the safety and well-being of Canadians,” Bell Canada EVP Mark McDonald stated.
“These thefts are not just about stolen copper; the perpetrators often damage other infrastructure such as fibre cable and the crime can potentially put lives at risk when people can’t call 911 as a result of the damage.”
Guide One Insurance says that copper thefts are becoming more common as 100 per cent recyclable and recyclers pay, on average, 90 per cent of the new copper price for scrap copper.
Back in April of 2020, copper futures stood at a low of $2.19 per pound while that number has skyrocketed to $5.12 as of Wednesday.
That number will certainly continue to climb if U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of massive tariffs on copper holds true.
In December, law enforcement officials told a Senate committee it was tough to combat copper thefts as they are generally a crime of opportunity and the infrastructure usually lacks basic security and its identifiers can be easily erased.
They noted that the copper can be melted down, eliminating any traces to the crime it might be connected to.
–with files from Global News and The Canadian Press
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