Telecom Order CRTC 2025-283

Reference: 2021-48

Gatineau, 30 October 2025

Public record: 1011-NOC2019-0372

Broadband Fund – Change request – Rogers Communications Canada Inc.’s Ontario transport fibre project – October 2025

Summary

Canadians need reliable, affordable, and high-quality Internet and cellphone services for every part of their daily lives.

Through its Broadband Fund, the Commission contributes to a broad effort by federal, provincial, and territorial governments to address the gap in connectivity in underserved rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across Canada.

With this order, the Commission approves Rogers Communications Canada Inc.’s request to postpone the completion date for its transport fibre project in Bruce Station, Ontario.

Background

In Telecom Regulatory Policy 2018-377, the Commission set out objectives and governing frameworks for the Broadband Fund. In the Application Guide appended to Telecom Notice of Consultation 2019-372, which initiated the second call for Broadband Fund applications, the Commission defined a material change as including a major change in the cost or scope of a project.
Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Rogers)^{Footnote 1} participated in the second call for Broadband Fund applications. In Telecom Decision 2021-48, Rogers received approval for its funding application. The approved application supports a project to construct and upgrade transport infrastructure in Bruce Station, which is located in the Township of Plummer Additional, Algoma District, Ontario. The project involves building approximately 1.8 kilometres of fibre optic transport network and upgrading a point of presence (PoP) in the community of Bruce Station. The proposed fibre network is intended to connect with an existing microwave transport network to support network resiliency.
The Commission later received written acceptance of the funding award from Rogers and approved Rogers’ related statement of work in Telecom Order 2021-401, subject to the conditions of funding set out in Telecom Decision 2021-48.
Among the conditions of funding is the requirement, set out in paragraph 13 of Telecom Decision 2021-48, that any material changes to the project be approved by the Commission. An application for a material change is known as a change request.

Change requests

The Application Guide appended to Telecom Notice of Consultation 2019-372 stipulated the Commission’s expectation that projects be completed within three years of the funding award. Telecom Decision 2021-48 was issued on 4 February 2021, creating an expectation that this project be completed by 4 February 2024. However, the completion date for this project was extended through three change requests, postponing expected completion to early summer 2025, as explained below.
In Telecom Order 2024-16, the Commission approved a change request from Rogers to extend the project’s internal completion date by an additional six months. The additional time was needed due to the discovery of asbestos at one of the project sites. The internal extension would still have seen the project in service by 4 February 2024 and therefore did not affect the expected overall completion date.
In Telecom Order 2024-140, the Commission approved a second change request from Rogers for an additional 10.5 months to complete the project. The further extension was needed to address unforeseen infrastructure upgrade requirements and other factors relating to commercial negotiations with third parties. This approval did extend the expected completion date, which was moved to the end of fall 2024.
In Telecom Order 2025-49, the Commission approved a third change request from Rogers to again delay the project’s completion, this time by an additional seven months to early summer 2025. The additional time was needed due to factors that it requested remain confidential, which relate to a third-party general contractor for the project.
The Commission reviewed these factors, which Rogers submitted confidentially, and was satisfied that they were due to circumstances beyond Rogers’ control or reasonable contemplation. At the time, the Commission reminded all parties that any change requests relating to material timing changes should be submitted in a timely fashion and must take existing timeline expectations into account.
On 23 June 2025, Rogers submitted a fourth change request, which is the subject of this order. In this request, Rogers is seeking a further four months. Rogers stated that the additional four months is needed to address factors that it requested remain confidential, which relate to the third-party general contractor for the project, which is no longer involved in the project. Rogers has also requested the additional time to account for delays related to necessary power upgrades and unseasonal weather.

Commission’s analysis

The Commission has reviewed the documents submitted with this fourth change request, including those submitted confidentially.^{Footnote 2} The Commission underlines the importance of addressing connectivity gaps quickly by completing Broadband Fund projects in a timely manner.
Projects funded through the Broadband Fund are expected to be completed within three years of the funding decision. In this case, the original completion date was 4 February 2024, three years from the issuance of Telecom Decision 2021-48. This latest change request from Rogers to complete the project in the fall of 2025 results in a cumulative project implementation delay of more than one year and eight months from the original expected completion date.
Given that the scope of the project is relatively small, much of the work has already been completed, the project will support network resiliency, and the Commission originally awarded funding to Rogers more than four and a half years ago, the Commission considers that Rogers is in a position to take corrective and precautionary measures to prevent any further delays to this project. If there are further delays, the Commission may consider implementing other measures to ensure the project’s completion, up to and including the forfeiture of the remaining funding.
The Commission considers that, under the circumstances and in light of the above, the revised project timeline is reasonable. Accordingly, the Commission considers that approving the change request would satisfy the objectives identified by the approach set out in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2018-377. However, the Commission also considers that Rogers should take corrective and precautionary measures that will prevent further delays to the project.

Conclusion

In light of the above, the Commission approves Rogers’ change request and expects that the project be completed by the end of October 2025. All funding conditions and conditions imposed under section 24 of the Telecommunications Act, as set out in Telecom Decision 2021-48, continue to apply.

Secretary General

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