I have been continuing to wonder about the proposed income trust spin out of rural lines at Bell Canada. I somewhat understand why the lines aren’t being sold to the existing structure at Bell Nordique. After all, Bell Nordique has long been operated as a separate company and it has its own maintenance crews, etc. The model for the new income trust, as I understand it, is for the staff to remain at Bell and to be working under contract for the income trust company.
Question: doesn’t this model leave open the possibility to manipulate the transfer payments. If Bell is looking for some extra revenues, it increases the management fees. Or vice versa? How do we ensure that the fees are representative of arms length transactions?