To our friend Curtis: the fed Tories' move on telco deregulation could well mean an acceleration of the long-rumoured MTS buy-out by Bell. That's the end of our own telephone company. End. Over and out. Sayonara.
Does this mean Gary Filmon and Hugh McFadyen are to blame? Well, frankly, yes. They sold MTS, as you know.
MTS could today be company to the lone remaining Canadian public telco, SaskTel, for example, which will continue and deliver the best rates possible to all consumers in that province, including rural folks, as SaskTel doesn't have to deliver profits for shareholders. Brandon and rural Manitoba subscribers especially won't fare very well on local service rates -- as has been the case since MTS's privatization.
As this press release today indicates, major bulk users will do increasingly well in the new environment. Not so sure it's a great idea for regular folks.
Are Manitobans up in arms that MTS was privatized and now many Manitobans pay substantially higher rates for local service (while long distance rates have dropped)? No.
Are we better off, though, with a privatized MTS? Probably not.
This will be especially more apparent if MTS is bought by Bell or Telus and hundreds of Manitoba jobs disappear, on top of the rate increases.
So, then we can really give Gary F. and Hugh a huge moooo-wah (kiss-kiss).
(Oh, in case you think it's unfair to tag this to Huey, he bragged about his involvement in the sale of MTS shares in his leadership bio.)
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PS - We are not the caucus.