Government telecommunications network: Bell delays cost taxpayers $5.7 million

Delays by Bell have increased the bill for the Quebec government’s telecommunications network by $5.7 million, a project whose costs have continued to explode for several years.

In 2017, Quebec estimated the bill to replace its telecommunications network at only $8.2 million.

Today, $38.9 million has already been spent on this project, and the estimated total cost of implementing the network now reaches a sum of $46.9 million, an increase of 472% compared to the initial forecast.

Much of this dramatic increase was caused by changes to the project in 2022, as reported The Journal at the time.

Bell pointed

But since then, new delays have added to the bill once again, and the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs is pointing the finger at Bell for this increase.

“In order to finalize the project […] in March 2025, an additional increase of $6.3 million is required. This increase is explained by delays by the service provider [Bell Canada] to produce the various deliverables in compliance with the requirements,” explained a spokesperson for the ministry, Émile Boudreau, in an email to Journal.

Interest charges

Called upon to specify the nature of the impact of these delays on the cost of the project, Mr. Boudreau mentioned the need to maintain the ministry’s resources assigned to the supervision of the work ($2.5 million) longer than expected, change requests in order to adapt to technological developments and security requirements ($300,000) and finally interest costs for the capital borrowed to carry out the project ($2.9 million).

“Note that when the project business case was authorized, interest costs were not included. These are now estimated at $600,000. These are not due to the delay of the service provider,” added the ministry spokesperson.

Despite several emails, Bell Canada did not respond to requests from Journal at the time of writing these lines.

More and more expensive

– Amount planned for 2017: $8.2 million

– Change in the scope of the project in 2022: +$32.5 million

– Bell delays in carrying out the work: +$5.7 million

– Interest costs: + $600,000

– Estimated bill today: $46,975 million (+ 472%)

– The network is used by 34 establishments in the health network and around a hundred ministries and organizations.

– To date, 95% of the work has been completed.

– Implementation of the network is planned for 2025.