Thunder Bay – BUSINESS – Tbaytel hosted its annual general meeting virtually on Monday, April 26 and released Meeting the Moment: 2020 Report to the Community. The report highlights key accomplishments from the past year, Tbaytel’s strategic direction and summarizes financial information. It also highlights how Tbaytel provided support to some of our region’s most vulnerable and was able to meet the unprecedented need for Thunder Bay and northern Ontario to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. As 2020 continued to change the way people in our region live and work, Tbaytel along with its authorized dealers throughout northern Ontario provided a safe, consistent and vital service for our communities.
“Tbaytel is proud to have played an essential role for Thunder Bay and northern Ontario during times of great uncertainty in 2020,” said Tbaytel President and CEO Dan Topatigh.
“Tbaytel implemented important changes that provided everything from leadership and support for our communities as a whole, to network augmentations in order to support increased customer demand for bandwidth, to business partnerships to provide connectivity for learning and working and through it all developed robust and evolving processes thanks to the guidance of our public health officials. We were focused on keeping our customers and our employees safe while delivering the very best in services and products that the people of northern Ontario have come to expect from Tbaytel.”
With many events and organizations going virtual last year, Tbaytel continued to be a good neighbour through its Tbaytel for Good sponsorship program, contributing more than $458,179 to 95 organizations in 11 communities. Some highlights include the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games 2020, Hospice Northwest and the Tbaytel Neighbourhood Heroes campaign.
This past year saw Tbaytel continue to bring its products and services to more people than ever before with new mobility towers and the addition of LTE to sites throughout the region to increase the speed and capacity of its mobility network. Tbaytel also delivered fibre to the doors of Kenora and Keewatin following quickly on the heels of launching fibre in both Fort Frances and Dryden in previous years. Continued fibre investment in Thunder Bay means Tbaytel can now deliver this state-of-the-art service to 86 per cent of the City of Thunder Bay.
During a year of unpredictability, Tbaytel heightened focus on cost control and efficiencies in service delivery in order to maintain balance of continued network investment with strong financial performance.
More than $200 million in revenue was earned for 2020 demonstrating the strong support Tbaytel has from its loyal customer base which directly correlates to an $18.5 million dividend to the city of Thunder Bay that ultimately reduces local property tax bills by approximately 9 per cent.
The city will also receive an additional $2.6 million performance dividend. Since its inception in 2004, Tbaytel has returned more than $317 million in dividends to the city.
“During this unprecedented time, it can be challenging to plan, strategize and forecast. In 2020, Tbaytel was able to provide consistent world-class service, continue investing in its network and remain a major economic contributor to the region,” said Tbaytel Municipal Board Chair Jack Jamieson.
“This was achieved through the hard work and dedication of Tbaytel’s employees, executive management team and board members. As a locally owned and operated business, I would like to thank all of northern Ontario for its continued commitment to Tbaytel.”
To view or download Meeting the Moment: 2020 Report to the Community please visit tbaytel.net/communityreport
