Guelph · Election 26 October 2026
Bell cut the build,
not the bill.
The same $85 buys 3,000 Mbps on Elmira Road and 50 Mbps downtown — a 2009 speed at a 2026 price.
$85 a month buys either
A home 2.7 km from City Hall
Downtown · 3 plans offered
Download
50Mbps
Upload
10Mbps
A home on Elmira Road
4.4 km further out · 5 plans offered
Download
3,000Mbps
Upload
3,000Mbps
Download, to scale
Upload, to scale
Same bar, same scale. Full width = 3,000 Mbps.
$8,500a month
What the Elmira Road plan would cost at the downtown rate of $1.70 / Mbps instead of $0.03 / Mbps.
Why this is a council issue
Rural speed, downtown price
50/10 is the bare minimum Ottawa says every farmhouse in Canada should get. It’s the best Bell will sell you downtown, and it costs the same as 3,000 Mbps four kilometres away.
One game in town
Downtown, Rogers cable is the only real option. Where Bell fibre exists, the CRTC ruling also lets competitors sell on it. Without it, there is no competition and no pressure on anyone’s price.
Our streets, their terms
Every cable runs under public roads and past public poles. Bell and Rogers decide who gets wired and what it costs; the City that owns the ground gets no say. It could. That’s what the three questions are about.
How Guelph got here
Bell was never asked to give anything away. It was told to sell competitors access to its fibre at a regulated price, for which it would be paid. It chose to stop building instead.
Show the timeline, 2022–2025
-
Apr 2022
Bell promises fibre to 44,000 Guelph homes “by 2024”, “fully funded by Bell.” The Mayor calls it “great news for Guelph.” Announcement
-
Nov 2023
The CRTC rules that Bell must sell competitors access to its fibre, at a regulated price. Bell responds by cutting $1 billion from its own build and warning it will “re-consider pending builds in all communities where it had planned to expand.” Bell’s statement
-
2024
Bell’s own deadline passes. Some Guelph streets have fibre. Others don’t.
-
Jun 2025
Bell’s cuts reach $1.2 billion, by its own count affecting “more than 1 million homes and businesses in more than 150 communities.” It will not say which. Bell’s statement
-
Aug 2025
Ottawa reviews the ruling and lets it stand. Bell has not come back.
Three questions for every candidate
-
1
Will you fund a dig-once policy, so City conduit goes into the ground whenever a street is rebuilt, and is offered to any carrier?
-
2
Will you direct staff to report within six months on the City’s spare conduit and dark fibre, and the terms on which a competing provider could use it?
-
3
Will you meet with carriers in your first year, with that conduit and fibre as the offer, and report publicly on what they tell you?
Mayor
Ward 2
The quotes
