MIG
please move this thread from “General Chat” to the Prince Rupert category
I agreed. We need to sell City West. The sooner the better. I hope that the issue comes up in the next municipal election.
I don’t think that CityWest has a hope in hell in competing against the major players in the provision of anything. Witness the loss of the the cell phone business. Citywest is simply too small.
Also, if the CRTC follows the American model, eventually, CityWest will be required to allow other service providers to use its’ internet cable (okay they will get a bit money charging a fee - but not that much). It is expected that the companies in the market who will really be making money will be the providers of content. Witness the investment that NETFLIX plans this year. $3 billion on TV and film content.
Right now you can buy a LG Smart Tv for about $400 - $500 and plug it into your internet cable. You pay $8.00 per month for NETFLIX. If you go this way, you will never again buy cable tv from CityWest.
So, I say, lets sell it. If we realize $30 million on the sale and we bought dividend stock that paid a 3% dividend, we would get around $900,000 a year in dividends. This is a heck of a lot better than what we have been getting in the past 4 years and probably alot more than we can anticipate to receive in the next 5 years. If the Directors of City West think that the company has a great financial future - fine, they can buy it from the City. Sixty years ago, there was a need for phone service in Prince Rupert and no one else wanted to supply it. That context no longer exists.
I like the people at CityWest, but as a taxpayer, I am not interested in providing them with a job at the expense of my property taxes. The guys at the fire department and ferry, well, they do provide a service which I do not think can be replaced. As far as I am concerned, someone else can provide phone, cable and internet service along Highway 16. It does not have to be the taxpayers of Prince Rupert!