Telecom - Staff Letter addressed to Stephen Schmidt (TELUS Communications Inc.)

Gatineau, 5 June 2025

Our reference: 8000-C12-201909780

BY EMAIL

Stephen Schmidt
Vice-President – Telecom Policy and Chief Regulatory Legal Counsel
Telecom Policy and Regulatory Affairs
TELUS Communications Inc.
Floor 5 – 215 Slater Street
Ottawa, ON K1P 0A6
regulatory.affairs@telus.com

Subject: Request for Information – TELUS 9-1-1 service outage in Brandon, Manitoba

Dear Stephen Schmidt,

This letter is regarding a 9-1-1 service outage that TELUS Communications Inc. (TELUS) experienced on 22-24 March 2025 for wireless 9-1-1 calls destined to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in Brandon, Manitoba.

On 11 April 2025, Commission staff sent a letter to TELUS requesting, among other things, that TELUS provide staff with progress reports on its investigation of the outage, on a weekly basis, beginning 16 April 2025. The letter indicated that TELUS should:

• provide updated information in each progress report on the cause of the outage, steps taken to resolve the outage, the impact of the outage (including the lack of 9-1-1 service during the outage), and plans put in place to prevent similar outages in the future;
• disclose as much information as possible and, if necessary, provide an abridged version of each progress report so that the CRTC can place this information on the public record for the benefit of both Canadians and other providers; and
• continue to file progress reports on a weekly basis until CRTC staff is satisfied that there is a definitive understanding of the outage.

Abridged versions of the reports filed by TELUS are available on the Commission’s website.

Having reviewed TELUS’ reports, Commission staff requests further information to inform the public of what happened and help other telecommunications providers avoid similar outages. The Commission requests that TELUS provide responses to the questions set out below no later than 16 June 2025.

Summary of the outage

1. The Commission requests that TELUS provide a public summary of the outage, in plain language, that explains:
   1. the timeline of the outage, including the dates and times when: (i) the outage began, (ii) TELUS became aware of the outage, (iii) TELUS took actions while the outage was ongoing, and (iv) the outage ended;
   2. the cause(s) of the outage, including any network, process, or system issues that contributed to or prolonged the outage;
   3. the reason(s) why the outage lasted more than 36 hours; and
   4. the mitigating strategies that TELUS has implemented to prevent similar outages in the future.

TELUS’ responses must provide a clear and complete explanation for the public. Accordingly, they must not contain confidential information and must be filed entirely on the public record with no redactions. TELUS’ responses must also include any information that TELUS previously filed in confidence but that has since been made public, including through media reports.

Justification for filing prior information in confidence

In its 16 May 2025 report, TELUS submitted that it was filing portions of the report in confidence as they contained “[…]  technical information on the outage including activities TELUS undertook to remedy and report on the outage and to put in place steps to limit future similar outages. The technical details, could, if made public provide a roadmap for bad actors to attack Canadian 9-1-1 networks […].”

TELUS also submitted that releasing this information would be contrary to the Access to Information Act given that “[t]hat legislation specifically precludes disclosure of third party information provided in confidence to a government institution for emergency management purposes, and that concerns the vulnerability of third party systems, networks, etc. […].”

While Commission staff believes it is in the public’s best interest for TELUS to disclose as much information as possible about the outage on the public record, it also recognizes that certain information may be justifiably filed in confidence. Accordingly, staff considers it equally important for the public to understand TELUS’s rationale for doing so.

2. The Commission requests that TELUS elaborate on the above statements from its 16 May 2025 report. In doing so, TELUS must provide on the public record:
   1. a complete list of the types of information that TELUS submitted in confidence as part of its reports, including where such information is located in its each of the four post-incident reports that TELUS filed; and
   2. a detailed rationale for filing this information in confidence, including an explanation of the potential risks to TELUS and its 9-1-1 operations if the information were to be disclosed.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Noah Moser
Acting Director General, Costing and Regulatory Implementation
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

c.c.:    Ian Baggley, CRTC,  ian.baggley@crtc.gc.ca  
Étienne Robelin, CRTC, etienne.robelin@crtc.gc.ca  
James Ndirangu, CRTC, james.ndirangu@crtc.gc.ca

Date modified:

2025-06-05