These pretzels are making me thirsty!
[quote=“Dex”]
Yep, it is hard to fully quantify the writedown strategy as we have no real insider knowledge. We do not even know the full reasons. Could have been to acquire more finance or partnerships. But we do know the 20 million loan forgiveness/writedown came from money the city acquired by selling its assets to the corporation, for which it is sole owner. It wasn’t like the City lost 20 million dollars. In a simplistic way of describing it, we just cancelled debt we owed ourselves for the benefit of the corporation that we own. I see nothing that really raises alarm bells , although worthy of honest scrutiny.[/quote]
The history of Citywest should raise alarm bells. They initially planned to pay $2 million a year in dividends, then revised that to $1 million, then to $500,000, then they stopped paying dividends, and in some years made loan repayments. This year they could not even manage to do that.
That’s a pretty sad track record for a $28,995,763 investment. But some people are evidently okay with that. The council really should look at their options, but that is unlikely to happen.
As for the $20 million write down on the debt in 2008, Speakuppr has an interesting point. Asset value is based on the lesser of market value or cost. The auditor may have concluded that Citywest’s investment in Monarch / Skeena Cable was not worth book value so the loan was written down because the City would be unlikely to recover the full amount if that part of the business was sold off.
In 2008 Citywest shut down the analogue cell system. The equipment value would have been part of what Citytel transferred to Citywest. Equipment depreciates and can become obsolete. The company lost asset value and for that reason as well the original loan amount would no longer represent a realistic estimate of what Citywest was worth. Perhaps value would have been maintained if Citywest had invested its mobile profits in GSM rather than opting for CDMA.
[quote=“Dex”]
I made you aware in one of my posts that you can use the FOI act to request Citywest documents. Have you done this? I ask because you have expressed concern about it prior.[/quote]
You made anyone who cared to read the thread aware of Citywest’s FOI obligations and I agreed with you and provided further information < City West is subject to the Freedom of Information Act >.
An FOI to Citywest to get financial statements should not be necessary. The corporate articles clearly require that every year the company will present its’ financials to the council in an open meeting.
“11.3 Disclosure of Financial Statements
For so long as the City of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, is a shareholder of the Company, the Company will present at an open meeting of the municipal council of the City of Prince Rupert the financial statements of the Company presented to the annual general meeting of the Company and the report of the auditor on those financial statements within 120 days of the Company’s fiscal year end.”
Have any City West Cellular customers gone to see about this Telus thing? Any input?
I did today. Got my new phone and got a great rate on a 2 year contract. Im happy .
Good to hear. I understand we get to port our numbers…so are we free to use that number later if we go elsewhere with our business?
Good to know. I will be exploring my options yet again this summer. Does anyone know if Telus has good coverage?
I’ve been with Telus for 6 years now great coverage everywhere I’ve been around town. Even get decent coverage at my place out in the sticks.
I love Telus. I switched when I moved to Terrace, but I get just as good of coverage here, if not better.
Thanks jesus and bubbasteve735. I will certainly give Telus a look in the summer when my 3 year contract with Rogers is up. 
Just one more voice and one more option.
I have been extremely pleased with the Telus coverage in Rupert since I moved from Rogers in May this year…even though I am not officially a direct Telus customer.
Telus owns Koodo (which offers generally lower cost options including pay as you go and no contract options - sorta like the relationship between Bell and Fido) and its’ service is on the Telus system.
I have been extremely pleased with Koodo. When transitioning from my previous carrier they talked me through the process, saved me money by ‘talking me down’ from the more expensive plan that I had selected, and responded honestly to questions. Moreover, updates on usage are easy to read for the non-techie and easy to access using their app.
Koodo’s customer service ratings are consistently high…so anyone thinking of making a change might want to check them out.
Just another option available - and honestly, isn’t it nice to have more options?
I would call sight and sound in Terrace they deal with KODO … Kodo uses the Telus network should there
be no problem… possibly may have to use a port ed number but that’s no problem
Walmart also sells Koodo Phones
Does anyone remember when this whole City West thing went public or the city became the main shareholder , that this company was supposed to produce the city a 2 million dollar dividend a year ? That ranks right up there with the bridge we were promised lol !!
Telus brought in its own employee who works out of the CityWest office selling their cell phones. I’m also curious if this will translate to more Telus workers here or if they’ll contract with CityWest. Anyone?
[quote=“Soggy”]
Telus brought in its own employee who works out of the CityWest office selling their cell phones. I’m also curious if this will translate to more Telus workers here or if they’ll contract with CityWest. Anyone?[/quote]
That’s interesting. Perhaps Telus prefers to be represented in the local market by their own unionized employees rather than Citywest’s.
There will be an actual storefront, called Andres, that will be selling phones. City west has nothing to do with it anymore. And no jobs are being contracted out.
There doesn’t seem to be much to this “partnership” other than a limited time offer to encourage Citywest customers who are willing to pay for an upgrade to move to Telus and to keep their existing phone numbers, before Citywest pulls the plug on their CDMA phones.
Well, I guess I was wrong that Citywest’s ‘partnership’ was going to be the same as a mall kiosk. They’re not even getting that.
Partnership as defined by citywest:
We give you our remaining customer base, a space to peddle your wares in return for which you give us absolutely nothing. Our shareholders will be grateful for this deal.
[quote=“jesus”]
We give you our remaining customer base, a space to peddle your wares in return for which you give us absolutely nothing. Our shareholders will be grateful for this deal.[/quote]
I’m glad I dumped CityWest 5+ years ago. Other than the contract lock-in I’ve been reasonably happy with Rogers.