Copper Theft Surge Cuts Phone Service Across Canada as Outages Jump 400%

Copper theft is turning into something far more serious than a nuisance for Canadian telecom providers. In some communities, it is knocking out phone and internet service for days or even weeks, raising fresh concerns about public safety as criminals chase record-high metal prices.

One of the clearest examples came from Clarendon, a rural area in southern New Brunswick, where a telephone wire theft in early January left about 135 residents without phone service for roughly two weeks. In a place where cell coverage is unreliable, the outage carried immediate consequences. Local RCMP said residents were unable to call 911 while the lines were down.

Police later recovered the stolen wire at a nearby home, where the black rubber coating had allegedly been burned away to expose the copper inside. Officers seized 90 kilograms of copper wire and charged three people with theft of property over $5,000.

The Clarendon case has become part of a much wider pattern. Telecom companies say copper thefts and related vandalism have climbed sharply as the metal’s market value has surged. Bell said it recorded 1,275 theft-related incidents across its network in 2025, up about 40% from the previous year. Rogers said outage hours linked to vandalism in its network, including attempted copper theft, have increased by 400% since 2022.

That sharp rise is changing the way the issue is viewed. These are not only theft cases tied to property loss or repair bills. When service lines are cut, the damage can leave households disconnected from emergency help, work, school and basic communication, especially in rural areas where mobile coverage is weak or inconsistent.

Bell has already started pushing the issue through the courts. The company recently highlighted a Quebec ruling that awarded it $24,000 in damages after it sued a man convicted of stealing copper in Chicoutimi, where 94 customers lost internet service for more than a day. The message from telecom operators is becoming clearer: the financial cost is rising, but the bigger concern is the disruption to infrastructure people depend on every day.

That growing pressure is now spilling into politics. Conservative MP Connie Cody, who represents Cambridge, Ontario, introduced Bill C-271 last month. The private member’s bill would make it a criminal offence for scrap metal dealers to trade, traffic or possess for sale any scrap metal known to be stolen, with penalties of up to $10,000 in fines and as much as two years in jail.

The push reflects frustration over what many see as an uneven system. Scrap dealers in New Brunswick are required to ask sellers for identification, but similar rules do not exist in neighbouring Nova Scotia or Quebec. That patchwork has led to complaints that thieves can simply move stolen material across a provincial border and sell it elsewhere. Alberta has taken a stricter route, requiring metal recyclers to report all sales to police through a centralized database.

Scrap yard operators, however, say the picture is more complicated than public anger suggests. Some dealers insist they routinely refuse suspicious copper and do not want stolen material entering their yards. One Nova Scotia dealer said phone wire is easy to recognize and that he always turns it away, but he also warned that not every buyer does the same. He added that refusing suspicious sellers can itself carry risks for yard owners dealing with volatile or desperate people.

Industry groups say the problem now demands a broader response than isolated prosecutions. Eric Smith, senior vice-president of the Canadian Telecommunications Association, said wire theft becomes a public safety matter when it interferes with communications networks. His group supports Bill C-14 in Parliament, which would introduce tougher penalties for thefts that disrupt critical infrastructure.

That argument is likely to gain traction because the damage is no longer theoretical. As copper prices remain attractive, telecom lines, utility equipment and remote infrastructure are becoming more tempting targets. For residents in major cities, a cut cable may be an inconvenience. For smaller communities with limited backup options, it can mean being cut off at the worst possible moment.

The pressure now is on lawmakers, police, telecom operators and recyclers to close the loopholes that make the trade viable. Without a more consistent national approach, the value of stolen copper may continue to outweigh the risk for thieves — and ordinary customers will keep paying the price in silence, outages and lost access when they need it most.