July 23 can't come soon enough for Telus and several other utility operators in the province whose cable infrastructure has been attacked by metal thieves.
On that date, province-wide regulations come in to effect that will require all sellers of copper wire and other high-value metals to present identification to the scrap purchaser. Records of those transactions will have to be shared daily with police, who will compare that information with theft reports.
All buyers of scrap metal will have to be registered with the province and keep records for a minimum of one year which include the seller's name, address, phone number, date of birth and details of the vehicle used to deliver the scrap and where it was obtained.
"We welcome the regulations, they are going to be an important tool in the fight against metal theft, without placing an undue burden on those many good operators in the scrap industry," said Telus spokesperson Shawn Hall. "It will make it more difficult for thieves and the shady scrap dealers they sell to, to operate and gives police an important investigative tool in their fight against this."
Thefts of Telus's copper phone cable are reported almost daily in B.C. as thieves take advantage of high commodity market prices for copper in the past six or seven years. The price per pound of copper in 2004 was about $1.30 and that spiked to $4 per pound in 2006. It's now close to $3.60 per pound, but most scrap dealers offer about $2.75.
"380 times last year, thieves stole live Telus cable," Hall said. "In every incident that meant customers were left without phone service, including 911, until we were able to put new cable up. They are climbing poles to steal copper cable, so they are putting their lives at risk, and they are putting our customers' lives at risk."
One copper thief died in Maple Ridge two years ago trying to steal a Telus cable when the pole he was on snapped and fell on him after he cut the line. On average, each incident costs the company about $50,000, which added up to a $19 million loss in 2011.
Thieves nabbed five 100-metre lengths of phone cable Monday in Delta, leaving 2,800 customers without their land line service for almost a full day. Telus has replaced many of its copper phone cables with plastic fibre optic lines, which are worthless to recyclers.
Believed to be the first province-wide control on metal theft in Canada, Bill 13, the Metal Dealers and Recyclers Act, passed in the legislature in November but did not become official until the lieutenant-governor signed an order-in-council on Tuesday.
Allen's Scrap and Salvage in downtown Prince George has been requiring its selling customers to show photo ID since mid-April and no longer accepts material brought in with shopping carts. It must be delivered by a licensed vehicle. Allen's operations manager, Alex Allen, likes the idea of the new law but wants the utilities being targeted to take more responsibility to prevent theft.
"This has been something we've always wanted to do anyway and the regulations make its simpler to enforce it," said Allen. "[The utilities] need to find a better way to identify their material, but the problem is if they steal insulated wire and they strip it, how do you identify that?
"If somebody shows up with a bunch of copper wire and I don't think they are the type of people who should have it, I don't buy it from them. They always say they got it from their grandfather's farm."
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