ONTC workers pushing to transfer Ontera to port authority

A group representing employees at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC) is pushing to keep provincial Crown telecom provider Ontera under public administration. In March, the Ontario government announced a process to sell the individual business lines of the ONTC, a provincial government Crown corporation. The assets include northern telecom subsidiary Ontera, which has about 30,000 home phone and Internet customers and provides data services to business customers. The provincial government had asked companies and individuals interested in buying Ontera to submit qualifications by Oct. 22 to demonstrate “experience, expertise, financial strength and capacity to operate Ontera.” The government will next ask qualified candidates to submit bids for the telco and its assets. The General Chairperson’s Association (GSA), a group representing Ontera's clerical staff and other ONTC unionized employees, wants to transfer control of ONTC, including Ontera, to a newly created ports authority. If successful, the Crown corporation would remain under public administration instead of being sold to the private sector. “The government has decided the best value for northern Ontario and the taxpayers is to bust the organization up and sell it off in pieces,” Brian Stevens, a spokesman for the GCA, said in a phone interview. “Our proposal would keep the organization as a whole.” Stevens said the GCA’s proposal would help save jobs that would be lost if the Crown corporation was privatized and allow ONTC to continue expanding its northern Ontario transportation and telecommunication services. He said Ontera's infrastructure will rise in demand as mining companies increase their presence in the northern Ontario “Ring of Fire,” a deposit and mining area for chromite and other metals. “Part of our objective here is to continue to build the fibre networks and to continue to build alliances within the telecom industry,” he said. Stevens said some of Ontera’s remote service areas would lose access to telecom services if Ontera is sold to a private company seeking better returns for shareholders. A ports authority, he said, would better consider the needs of stakeholders and the Canadian public. “The private sector model doesn’t work in its entirety in certain sections,” he said, suggesting that if private service providers were interested, "they’d be there already.” BCE Inc.'s Bell Aliant, Bragg Communications Inc., MTS Allstream Inc. and smaller service providers are considered potential buyers of Ontera, The Wire Report reported in August. UBS Securities analyst Phillip Huang estimated at that time that Ontera would sell for $60 million to $80 million. Northern Ontario incumbent TbayTel is facing increased competition in Thunder Bay, Ont., as BCE launched fourth-generation LTE and HSPA+ mobile broadband services in the city in October. Bell is selling mobile devices as well as mobile-broadband powered Internet hubs and sticks. Laura Blondeau, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, said the government will continue with “current timelines” to complete the sale of Ontera as the GCA works to build a business case for its proposal. She said Northern Development Minister Rick Bartolucci met with GCA representatives to discuss their proposal and that Bartolucci asked the group to submit a business plan “as soon as possible.” “The bottom line is, Minister Bartolucci has always said from day one, ‘anyone with a good idea to move forward, we welcome that,’” she said. If the GCA submits a business case, “it will be considered, along with everything else along the way,” Blondeau said. Paulette Den Elzen, a spokeswoman for Crown corporation Infrastructure Ontario, which is managing the government’s process to sell Ontera, said “a number of potential buyers” filed submissions in response to the government's request for qualifications. She would not say how many companies filed submissions, citing the nature of the competition. “The submissions will be reviewed and evaluated and ranked, and then a short-list of potential buyers will be selected,” she said. Stevens said the GCA will continue to push for a port authority to take control of all of ONTC’s assets, including Ontera, even if the government reaches an agreement to sell the telco to a private bidder. He said the government would need CRTC approval to transfer control of Ontera, a regulatory process that could push the sale to spring 2013. “If they sign a letter of intent with a new operator, we won’t necessarily see that as a full-stop to our proposal,” he said. “We’re confident we have enough time.” Stevens said his organization may, at some point, ask the government to pause the sale process, adding that it could also seek an order to stop it from provincial court. “The government has indicated their willingness to listen to us,” he said. “They’re going to move ahead with their parallel process, but I think with this proposal in the background … they’ll take all of that into consideration as they move forward.” nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

ONTC workers pushing to transfer Ontera to port authority

News | 11/05/2012 7:56 pm EST

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