Bell Canada wants to see increased criminal penalties to prevent a rising number of copper thefts across Canada, including in Windsor.
Bell is reporting over 500 cases this year alone across Canada, a 23 per cent year-over-year increase.
Ontario leads with 63 percent of all copper thefts from Bell infrastructure, with Windsor, Hamilton, and Cambridge listed as some of the hot spots in the province, with thieves removing copper from the wires in the phone lines before selling it to salvage yards.
Bell's Director of Field Operations Dana Lohnes says Windsor has been a bit of a hotspot in 2025, with each event causing an outage for people in the area.
"We've seen as many thefts year-to-date in Windsor; in fact, a few more thefts year-to-date in Windsor 2025 than we saw in all of 2024. The volumes aren't huge compared to some other areas; there are 15 events year-to-date in Windsor and growing," he says.
Lohnes says he's not sure Windsor is unique to any other communities.
"I would say the two commonalities are there's a market, somebody's buying it and usually locally, and there's a crew of individuals willing to do it," he says.
The telecommunications company warns that copper theft is a serious crime that can result in long service outages, damaging infrastructure such as fibre cable, internet, and mobility service, along with critical services such as 911 and radio communication services used by first responders.
Lohnes says they've been working closely with the provincial and federal governments to try and 'kill the market' for copper.
"To basically do two things: increase fines for those that are caught doing this and increase jail time for those caught doing this so it's just not worth it," he says. "Right now what we're seeing is that even when people get caught, they're released quickly and return back to the activity."
Lohnes says it's the buyer they need to be after the hardest, along with those committing the thefts.
"A good majority of the changes that we're looking for are aimed directly at the buyers, typically the recyclers who are purchasing it and really making sure if you're buying it, and it's pretty obvious it's stolen, you can't buy it, or you have to ensure it's being sold to you from the representative of the company," he says.
Since 2022, Bell has recorded more than 2,270 copper thefts nationwide, with copper thefts accounting for 88 per cent of all physical security incidents on Bell's network.
Bell is also working to improve security around its infrastructure, which includes installing alarms that alert police to tampering, deploying additional security guards and surveillance cameras around known hot spots, and pursuing legal action against offenders.
Bell Media is the parent company of AM800 CKLW.