More than two months later, RCMP are still investigating after an intentionally cut communication cable left the Fraser Canyon without power and communication for three days.
On Feb. 20 at around 5 a.m., Hope RCMP were on scene, in the area of the Highway 1 and Highway 7 junction, after someone deliberately cut and stole fibre optic and copper cabling from one of the TELUS communication poles. According to police, “in addition to the cost of repairing the damaged line, this also caused a disruption in the internet, phone and television services (for the communities from Dogwood Valley to Spuzzum First Nation).”
TELUS, in an email to the Hope Standard, said that they were able to restore services to the area on Feb. 21 “after rapid and extensive repair efforts,” and that “the theft itself involved the damage and removal of copper cables.”
However, residents said that they — along with businesses and organizations in the Fraser Canyon — didn’t have internet and phone service for three days.
Among those affected by the area were the Yale and District Volunteer Fire Department, who said the incident could have put them at risk of not being able to respond to emergencies quickly.
This, said the Yale Fire Chief Bruce Marshall, was mainly because people living farther away from the community and living more isolated would have been unable to contact them; because most of the people in the area have been switching to fibre optic cables, almost everyone didn’t have a phone that they could use.
“It would have been harder on the people (if there was an emergency) because they would have had no way of contacting us to ask for that help.,” Marshall said. “Fortunately, we still had radio communication with our dispatch centres so we weren’t totally in the dark. But our backup system, that of course works through the fiber optics and it was affected as well.”
“As far as our response, we weren’t affected. If someone called 911 we were still going to get the call, (because we still had communication with our dispatch). But of course, there was the problem. No one in our area had 911 service. And for some of our members, if they were in an area where their pager didn’t work great, they weren’t going to hear from us.”
Despite the concerns, Marshall said, when it came to emergencies, the three-day incident was less of a problem for people who lived within the community simply because they had easier access to him.
“There is a good chain in (Yale). Everybody knows everybody (since it’s) a small community. So, a lot of people in the area know where I live and people would have come and banged on my door if they had an emergency,” Marshall laughed.
The theft is one of many that has taken place across Canada over the past few years. In 2023, TELUS said it dealt with “57 significant incidents causing customer impacts, compared to 28 in 2022 – an increase of roughly 103 per cent.”
“The thefts have also become larger, affecting more customers and taking longer to repair,” TELUS said via email. “To combat this we are actively ramping up security around high-activity areas and working with local and federal authorities to prevent more thefts. We urge our customers to report any suspicious activity by calling Crime Stoppers or the local authorities.”
TELUS said they are also continuing their copper-to-fibre transition, with a goal to completely retire copper wiring and switch to TELUS PureFibre.
The incident, Marshall said, serves as a reminder of the importance of community, of maintaining connections with each other so that people aren’t alone and have someone they can rely on during emergency situations. In fact, even before the internet outage, a group of Yale locals had been working on putting together an emergency assistance program. This program would help to prepare and give out supplies during emergencies and make sure that emergency shelters were equipped to make people’s stay comfortable.
The incident also emphasized the importance of being prepared for emergency situations. Should the area be without power or internet again, Marshall encourages people to prepare by having an emergency kit prepared with essentials such as water, food, blankets, and a flashlight (along with other items). He also encourages people to check up on their neighbours and to make note of what groups are active in their community. It is also important, he said, for people to know where their nearest emergency services are.
While options like satellite phones are available and can be used, Marshall said people need to be aware that this solution can be costly; to use the phones, people have to pay a monthly subscription that can range from either $40 a month to $125 a month, depending on the plan. And depending on what phone users get, the plan may also only include 10 minutes of talk time with extra time being billed additionally at the end of the month.
It’s also not entirely foolproof.
“TELUS was nice and brought us out the Sat phones and we did have to hook them up and use them, but it was kind of funny,” Marshall said. “I was busy talking with my dispatch centre, and making sure they had all the contact information for us and everything else. And while I was walking, I lost the signal and disconnected.
“Yeah, so I had to phone her back and then we both had a big giggle about it, because the whole purpose of having that phone was so I had a way to communicate.”
@KemoneMoodley
kemone.moodley@hopestandard.com
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