In The Daily on Wednesday, Statistics Canada reported “Capital expenditures on Canadian infrastructure, 2018”. The statistical agency reported that total capital spending on Canadian infrastructure in 2018 was $93.3B.
An associated table [Table 34-10-0280-01 Capital expenditures, infrastructure assets, by ownership] provides a breakdown by category and ownership, indicating that $5.128B of the 2018 total was for “Communications networks” infrastructure, of which nearly 99% ($5.063B) was in the hands of the private sector.
This caught my eye. The figure seemed lighter than I expected. So I decided to take a look at the annual reports for the major carriers that file public reports to see what was reported for 2018 capital.
| Bell | Wireless and Wireline | $3.857 B |
| TELUS | Capital expenditures | $2.914 B |
| Rogers | Wireless & Cable | $2.515 B |
| Shaw | Cable & Telecommunications PP&E additions | $578 M |
| Quebecor | Telecommunications PP&E | $517 M |
| Total | $10.381B |
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So, looking at just the 5 largest public reporting mobile companies, we see more than double the amount of capital spending in telecommunications than Statistics Canada reported. Note that the table above excluded media spending by the integrated companies. The table also excludes Cogeco, privately held Eastlink and Xplornet, crown-owned Sasktel, and the hundreds of smaller carriers that deployed communications infrastructure in 2018.
We will try to find out why the capital spending figures are so different from the Communications Networks infrastructure numbers released by Statistics Canada.