Telus Support for Carbon Tx

[IanPatterson]

Our family have been a Telus mobility customer for about 15 years.  We are not a huge user, but we have been loyal to Telus.  I just read in the Financial Post that Telus has supported the Federal Carbon Tax plan.

I have a major problem with this position.  While i agree that climate change is a major problem, I simply do not see how adding an additional tax that will disappear down both provincial and federal budgetary black holes will do anything to help the climate.

Furthermore, when i read about the US organizations funding the so called environment movements in Canada, it makes me very suspicious.

I suggest that rather than supporting yet another means for governments to enrich themselves at taxpayers' expense, the discussion should be directed specifically at creating realistic market conditions to ensure movement to cleaner alternatives.

If we don't see a positive move on the part of Telus to do something other than blindly following the misguided political direction, we will switch to another provider.

Ian Patterson

[WestCoasterBC]

Some reading material..

https://www.google.ca/amp/business.financialpost.com/fp-tech-desk/customers-threaten-to-leave-telus-...

[Solomon]

Ian. I applaud you in your statement. I too am very disappointed in Telus. In saying that, I am right behind you in saying that if Telus does not come out and renege on their support. I will be done.

Your move Telus...

[Rob3230]

Ian I also applaud your stance and I stand fully behind you. I am a very loyal Telus customer using ALL the services that Telus offers, but however painful it is for me I can no longer offer my support to a corporation who has forgotten it's roots and who will support a moronic tax as our ill informed Prime Minister has proposed.

I put it to you Telus, as a company that stated in Alberta, who is followed loyally in Alberta, what is your next move. How are you going to distance yourself from this and reverse the opinion that you so hastily tweeted. Anything less than a complete reversal in your stance will be enough for me to cancel all my contracts with you.

[Nighthawk]

Telus has updated their twitter about this. https://twitter.com/TELUS/status/783703354748854272

[LeadingEd]

As a Telus Mobility customer for more than 20 years and 2k$ per year I am not happy with the carbon tax support. I don't understand why corporations now think they need to be politically correct. I think the shareholders would not appreciate it either. To Telus- be a business and stay away from social and political issues.

[BluenoseII]

Second all comments above. I am also a long-time customer (phone and internet) and have always had great customer service experience with Telus, but this is an insult. It insults taxpayers, western Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, any all Canadians employed by the various commodity sectors making up the actual backbone of our economy.

In my email to Telus I shared that our support as customers is tentative and that the tepid Twitter apology is insufficient for maintaining such. I, along with others, expect a senior leader from Telus to address media and retract any perceived support for a new tax on Canadians and the fragile domestic industries that provide our paycheques -- the cheques that ultimately pay our Telus bills.

[Mcdonald2009]

Ian,
Thankyou for writing this post. I too am disgusted that Telus can support Trudeau to increase our Canadian tax base while they have outsourced thousands of Canadian jobs to Guatemala which has no carbon tax.
What are we doing to our own country?

[Naiar]

Kind of an extreme reaction, no? Somehow, I doubt a multi-million dollar corporation will have THAT big a negative impact from saying they support the carbon tax. Besides, it's just the social media division, not the actual people at Telus who matter. 

[BluenoseII]

Naiar, this is not just a random tweet, Telus' Senior VP of Communications, Andrea Goertz, posted the exact same tweet on her personal account (see below). She also posted Telus being a signatory on the Liberal government's "Carbon Pricing Leadership Committee" advocating a national tax.

This is coming from the top-down, not the bottom-up.

https://twitter.com/Andrea_Goertz/status/783424342457626624

[Lola]

I just lost some respect for Telus Corporation, not for their support of a thing they have every right to support if they choose, whether I agree with it or not, but for their empty grovelling to people who, even if they changed services, wouldn't destroy the corporation, or even dent it. The bathroom boycott of Target is an example of consumer anger not breaking the source. Get a backbone Telus; some customers would appreciate it.

[Serious]

Telus support of the carbon tax has tipped the scale for me! I will be cancelling my services tomorrow!

[NDPNFG]

I have been a loyal Telus customer for 16 years. Reading the tweet you put out two nights ago made me so mad I couldn't sleep. How could a company that started as AGT betray Albertans so publicly? The fact you guys couldn't even apologize made it even worse. Your statement on Twitter the next day saying the tweet was not intended to be political makes no sense. If your company can not see the damage this carbon tax is going to have on Canadians and even more albertans well you deserve to loose your jobs too. This carbon tax is not even based on real science. For a company that is so much technology dependant you think it would not follow some fad to rid the word of weather patterns. I also can not be associated with your company if it endorses Trudeau. This man is a waste of oxygen with his only intent on screwing Western Canada. I will give you till Tuesday October 11th to publicly denounce the carbon tax and Justin's actions otherwise I will be forced to switch providers. I can not give my money to people who like the idea of financially breaking Canadians.
NDPNFG

[Nighthawk]

There is already an existing topic about the tweet. Please ensure responses are made there.

[mbp]

So let me see if I understand this. A little tweet goes out. People lose their minds. People complain at Telus, threaten to leave. Some might have. Who knows. People say nothing publicly about the Liberals and the Alberta NDP's plans to fleece Canadians and Albertans and further destroy what's left of our fragile economy by adding a crazy tax. Followed by more complaints about Telus...

Why not aim your outrage at the real problem? Trudeau has half-arsed the carbon tax plan and it'll be a disaster. The Alberta NDP is in the same boat. People should be venting significantly in their directions if they want to avoid the insane crazy tax that they are planning to force in. Economy and dollar are tanking. Let's add a crazy tax that'll hurt everyone and do absolute jack all to boost the economy... Carbon pricing is a complete scam and money grab.

[Lola]

And just so everybody is well informed and can take the proper steps to protect themselves from corporations that support this plan:

http://www.smartprosperity.ca/content/carbon-pricing

Don't shop anywhere connected to Loblaws, the biggest food distributor in Canada, because Loblaws supports the Fed plan to penalize provinces that don't bring in carbon plans of their own, which most provinces are doing.

LOL.

[Pied]

Business has a few 1 800 lines with Telus, please, reaching out to anyone who can help us switch out of Telus in the Victoria region.  (If I believed in CO2 killing our planet, maybe my local Chemistry department at our University would be out on the streets protesting Climate Change...but they are not..its politicians and their friend consultants who are...very easy to see people working the trough to get more CO2 consultant dollars from the rest of us.  Sorry, now if you would have said you supported childrens hospital...)

[Pied]

Thank you!   That is a list that is valuable to see.  Now I wish someone would post a list of companies that strongly DON'T support Carbon Tax, and they would get my business right away.

[BluenoseII]

Thanks for sharing the link Lola, very interesting. Particularly the quote below:

"TELUS supports putting a price on carbon to help spur clean growth and clean technology innovation." - attributable to Andrea Goertz, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer, TELUS

A number of us have seen the form responses from Telus stating they apologize for the tweet and are listening to customer feedback. I wonder if listening will involve responding to customer dissatisfaction by going to media and reversing their public support of a carbon tax. I'm not holding my breath, but it would certainly show that they back up their talking points with action -- which would be admirable.

[NFtoBC]

@Pied

 You can see the many areas where Telus gives to the community, including Women's Hospital at this link.

[Skiddy]

For the life of me I can't understand why any company would make a public statement about any issue, specifically a contentious issue like the proposed carbon tax. You are bound to please some, bound to PO others - it is not a very smart business decision. Telus does some great things in a number of communities, pity that one not so well thought out action can damage years of good work. 

[mbp]

Telus is based in Vancouver and BC has had a carbon tax for years so Telus is already familiar with it. The tax is happening whether we want it or not since Notley and Trudeau are both hell bent on forcing it in. If Telus as a business wants to support environmental initiatives then that is their choice. For those who care less about the environment, they won't like that.