Telecom providers spend months preparing for climate disasters, hoping their infrastructure makes it through unscathed

While Canada has seen a swath of climate disaster-related destruction in recent years, telecommunications providers have come up with game plans for keeping people connected. Canada’s wildfire season typically runs from May through September. Richard Carr, a fire research analyst with Natural Resources Canada, says drought is less extensive in Canada this year compared to the last two years. While conditions can still change, he told The Wire Report in April that he predicted a later start to this year’s fire season. Carr said there was still quite a bit of snow cover across the country in April, which can delay the onset of spring fires. However, he said large areas remained on the dry side, and he was expecting fairly warm temperatures starting in late spring. He predicted it will be an active summer, especially from eastern Saskatchewan through western Ontario. He also noted that fires started earlier than usual in southern British Columbia. Because of the less-extensive drought, Carr said there is not likely to be as much area burned as there was last year. He said things could intensify as the year goes on, but as of April, the conditions had not been setting the country up for large, widespread fire events. Northwestel making plans to minimize breaks in connectivity In 2023, wildfires raged across the country, quickly making it one of the worst wildfire seasons Canada has ever seen. Fires ripped through the Northwest Territories and more than two thirds of the population had to be evacuated. By the time the season was over, the fires had destroyed more than 4.1 million hectares across the territory. Damage to Northwestel’s infrastructure left residents dealing with the crisis without service. A year later, it happened again. Although the 2024 season was not as destructive as the previous year, Northwestel still experienced multiple service disruptions. Catherine Newsome, director of integrated marketing and customer experience at Northwestel, says the north didn’t have the level of redundancy required to keep services running when infrastructure was damaged. But this year, she says, Northwestel, a BCE Inc. subsidiary, has a “strong plan” to address network connectivity. Newsome says it has invested millions of dollars in infrastructure strengthening over the past two or so years to minimize the impact of climate disasters. (Bell is in the process of selling Northwestel to Sixty North Unity, a consortium of Indigenous investors, for almost $1 billion. An announcement on any finalization of the deal has yet to be made.) On Nov. 25, 2024, Northwestel announced the completion of its Canada North Fibre Loop (CNFL). Newsome says the 3,857-kilometre loop will be a key piece in minimizing service disruptions in the Yukon and Northwest Territories this year. “We did see some moments last year where customers had lengthy disruptions to their services,” she said. “In some of those cases, if the Canada North Fibre Loop was in place, those impacts wouldn’t have happened, and they certainly wouldn’t have been as long.” The CNFL is comprised of three parts: Northwestel’s 1,930-kilometre fibre network, which runs through Yellowknife and Whitehorse; the Northwest Territories government’s 1,149-kilometre Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link; and the Yukon government’s 778-kilometre Dempster Fibre Line. The Yukon government finished commissioning the Dempster line in late 2024, completing the last piece of the loop. Now, if there’s a major point of failure, traffic can flow in the opposite direction. “We’re really glad that we have that in place as climate disasters increase across Canada,” Newsome says. “This is a really, really key piece of the puzzle for us.” Although the north has yet to see any climate-related service disruptions since the CNFL became operational, Newsome says she feels the company is prepared if disaster does strike. When doing planned maintenance on its networks, the CNFL allowed the company to avoid what would have historically caused self-induced service disruptions. “We know that northerners have been waiting for this for a long time,” she says. “So have we.” Smaller players face added challenges As the industry continues to invest in increasing network resiliency, Eric Smith, senior vice president of the Canadian Telecommunications Association (CTA), which represents service providers and telecommunication manufacturers across the country, says it can be difficult for smaller carriers to keep up. “All of these things cost money,” he says. “ can sometimes have even greater challenges in order to come up with the funds necessary to engage in these activities.” Some begin planning months in advance For Bell, preparations for wildfire season start each year in February. The team goes through its game plan, deciding how it will prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires across the country. David Joice, director of networks for Bell Canada, believes Bell has handled past threats to its connectivity well, saying “there hasn’t been a colossal flop, from my perspective.” Nevertheless, he says Bell continues to learn and adapt from previous disasters, saying its strategies are always improving. “It’s hard to stop mother nature,” he says. “But I think the more you prepare, the better you are.” Joice says leading up to wildfire season, the team monitors for new fires almost daily. When fires do pop up, workers go through practice scenarios, planning how they will respond depending on how the fire develops. Before fires become a threat, Bell clears vegetation around infrastructure to minimize damage. Once the fires get closer, sprinklers are set up as an extra layer of protection. Crews set up generators for backup power and stock up on fuel to keep them running. As for Northwestel, it takes similar steps to prepare for wildfires, including clearing vegetation, setting up generators, and placing sandbags on and around pencells (ground-level boxes that house electronics). Joice says Bell is often able to repair fibre within 24 hours. But sometimes, the full repair could take much longer, depending on the impact. When Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Atlantic Canada in 2022, the storm raged through the east, causing significant damage to Bell’s infrastructure. Joice says it took weeks to repair the damage. In August 2023, Northwestel’s newly built fibre infrastructure in Enterprise, N.W.T., was severely damaged by wildfires. Newsome said it took until October to restore connectivity to the last homes in the community. The company is still working on rebuilding the last remaining fibre sections. Rogers Communications Inc. would not make anyone available for an interview. A spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Wire Report that as the threat of climate disasters in Canada continues to grow, the company is investing in strengthening network resiliency. “This includes increasing our wireline and wireless network redundancy across the country through alternate fibre routes, investing in more back-up power equipment, and additional training to help keep our customers connected,” the statement read. The CTA's Smith says power loss is the biggest threat to connectivity during climate disasters, so ensuring companies have a source of backup power is essential to keep the network running. “One of the main reasons people may lose connectivity is not so much the network going down,” he says, “but actually commercial power not being available.” According to Smith, the industry has been investing in infrastructure hardening to strengthen networks and help minimize the impacts of severe weather. This includes reinforcing cell towers, elevating equipment to prevent flood damage, and investing in weather-resistant materials. Preparing for disaster When it comes to forest fires, Joice says one of the most important factors to consider is wind speed. He says the situation escalates quickly once wind speeds pick up. “You really have to almost plan three or four steps ahead,” he says. As for hurricanes, ice storms, and wind storms, Joice says those storms tend to cover a lot of geography over several days or weeks. “In some ways it’s maybe easier to manage than, say, a hurricane, where the hurricane could cover all four provinces of the Atlantic,” he says. When dealing with hurricanes, Joice says “it’s all hands on deck” to move resources and personnel close to the region. Just like with forest fires, preparing for a hurricane means positioning crews near the impact zones, tracking the movement of the storm, ensuring generators are deployed, and making sure the network is running optimally beforehand. Newsome says flooding is a different story. She says to prevent water damage, fibre lines need to be covered with protective casing. She says the casing Northwestel uses held up well when one of the company’s fibre lines was exposed by a road washout in the Yukon last summer. Despite the line getting hit by the flood, Newsome says services were not impacted. Dealing with disruptions and damage When fires become a threat, Joice says Bell may ask the province to direct some of its firefighting efforts to save its infrastructure. He says protecting these areas is vital for maintaining connectivity for first responders. Joice says rural and remote areas don’t always have the same level of overlapping coverage, so when infrastructure gets damaged, there may not be any wireless redundancy. He says Bell prioritizes bringing crews closer to those areas so they can help maintain connectivity. According to Newsome, Northwestel employs over 500 northerners, which she says allows the company to avoid bringing in workers from the south to tackle problems. She says having a team with the “grit of the north” is essential for success in the area’s harsh conditions. “Operating in a place like this, you’ve got to have local crews who know how to do it,” she says. But no matter where a company is located, dealing with the fallout from climate disasters is not easy. During a climate event, Smith says companies have crews monitor their networks to assess the damage internally until the event has passed. “You’re not going to send a crew, obviously, out in the middle of a hurricane,” he says. “But they try to figure out what’s going on within their network remotely so that they can be made aware of problems that may be arising.” When they do get out, field technicians first assess the safety of the area and look for potential hazards, including fallen trees or telephone poles. They then inspect the damage and determine what materials are needed to fix it. Typically, crews will lay temporary fibre because it goes down quickly. They will then come back when it’s safer and lay permanent fibre. news@thewirereport.ca

Telecom providers spend months preparing for climate disasters, hoping their infrastructure makes it through unscathed

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By Maria Collins
| May 7, 2025

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Telecom providers spend months preparing for climate disasters, hoping their infrastructure makes it through unscathed

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