B.C. RCMP investigating copper theft that caused ‘extremely serious’ Telus outage

An outage map as seen on the Telus website on the afternoon of May 4, 2026.

Mounties are asking potential witnesses to come forward as they investigate a copper theft that caused a widespread Telus outage across northwestern B.C. this week.

Burns Lake RCMP said the vandalism was reported Monday morning near the Sheraton rest stop along Highway 16, where thieves apparently severed Telus fibre lines while stealing copper wire.

The resulting outage affected phone service, text messaging and internet access throughout the day.

“The impact to infrastructure is extremely serious and could have created delayed responses to other emergencies, potentially putting lives at risk,” said Staff Sgt. Kris Clark, in a statement Tuesday.

“Investigators are urging witnesses, as well as anyone with dash-cam video who drove Highway 16 in the early morning hours on Monday, to connect with them.”

Telus delivers 911 connectivity services in the province, but activated a backup system that allowed people in the affected areas to continue calling for emergency help.

The telecommunications company also activated emergency roaming through another carrier to allow customers to continue using their devices during the outage.

Health officials said there were also temporary impacts to 21 health-care facilities across Burns Lake, Hazelton, Smithers, Terrace, Prince Rupert and Masset.