New 911 tax?

[Mailliw102]

I just got the following message from Public Mobile:

Public Mobile here with an important update. The provincial government mandates a monthly tax to support local 9-1-1 emergency services. Starting July 31, 2025, you will see a Quebec provincial 9-1-1 tax of $0.54/month on your bill. For more information on the 9-1-1 tax, please visit our Get Help page: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/get-help/articles/911services.

This makes no sense at all, and just looks like a way to pad the monthly bills. This tax has been around for many years (since 2016 in QC), and phone service providers are required by law to collect the monthly 9-1-1 tax and remit it to the provincial governments. It has never appeared on my Public Mobile bills and I have been with them for several years, which means that either they were not collecting the tax (which would be against the law), or they included it in the price of the plans. The change that occurred this year in QC is that the tax went up from 0.46$ to 0.54$ per month, and now our phone bills is suddenly going to go up by half a dollar?

Yes I know that's only 6 bucks a year and no it won't affect me in any perceivable way. I'm just getting sick and tired of businesses padding bills with BS fees and straight out lying to their loyal customers about it. They have what, a few millions subscribers, that's millions of dollars taken from customers. The whole switch to the points system was already super shady and completely reset people's earned loyalty discounts. It was a big elaborate way to increase the bills while making it sound like it was a good change, but in the end that's all it did, increase the bill. How much money and manpower went into building this points system?

And now this, padding the bill again and trying to justify it based on a tiny increase in a 9 years old government tax... If you want to increase the prices for your services, just do it and warn your customers in advance. Don't gaslight them.

Stats for Quebec, I'm sure other provinces have a similar story: https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/citizens/consumption-taxes/taxable-zero-rated-or-tax-exempt-goods-and...

[Mailliw102]

Yes exactly, this tax has been around for years, now it's gone up 2 cents and they (PM) present it like it's a new thing, and it's a government tax, and there's nothing they can do about it, which is very dishonest. They certainly don't need to increase the bill by 0.54$ to make up for the 2 cents increase in QC, unless they never paid that tax, which would be even worse, and seems very unlikely as the governments of the provinces would have been on their case about it. And it looks like most other provinces have it even worse.

[MobileJP]

Thank you for the correction.  It was indeed $0.52 until December 31st, 2024. My point is that Public Mobile presents this information in its communication to us, the clients, as something totally new, but not providing us any information as to how this tax was handled up to now given it was not showing on our monthly receipt/invoice. It looks as if they decided to add 100% when it was only 2 cents. So why $0.54 all of a sudden, that doesn't make sense. The issue is not about the amount but how it is communicated to the client. How was it handled on our billing up to now.

[uschi11]

Tax tax was actually $0,52 in 2024, so it only increased by 2 cents, not 8.

[MobileJP]

Thank you for your explanation. I had never indeed  seen the QC 911 tax added to my monthly bill up to now. The text message sent to us is talking about $0.54 per month but for QC, it is not a new tax as you mention, it has been $0.46 for a long time. Was this included in the plans before? The message is not clear as it is not talking about an increase from $0.46 to $0.54 but more like a full new amount. If this tax is NOT new, and imbedded in the monthly plans, why is it not just a increase of $0.08 per month? It is not clear why they go from $0.00 to $0.54. This is confusing why they would start billing the full  amount as they provide no explanation of the system that was in place up to now.

[hTideGnow]

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@Mailliw102 wrote:

It is absolutely a real tax. I'm not debating that. You would know if you had read my post. "What can we do?" you ask. How about increase the bill by 8 cents (that's how much the tax went up in 2025) and not by 0.54$, as if the tax had suddenly appeared this year, when it has in fact been introduced 9 years ago.

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hi @Mailliw102 

these are all good suggestions.  But neither the government nor PM needs our input here, they both have chose a path for us to pay. And most carriers work with the govt to collect this tax on top of the plan fees, hence there is not much you can do

but luckily, if you are willing to "move", move your number to another provnice, BC, Ontario, Yukon,   Nuavut and Manitoba are still Free

[Mailliw102]

It is absolutely a real tax. I'm not debating that. You would know if you had read my post. "What can we do?" you ask. How about increase the bill by 8 cents (that's how much the tax went up in 2025) and not by 0.54$, as if the tax had suddenly appeared this year, when it has in fact been introduced 9 years ago.

[hTideGnow]

HI @Mailliw102 

it is a provincial govt fees, what can we do

Provinces with 911 Fees:

Alberta	$0.95
New Brunswick	$0.97
Newfoundland and Labrador	$0.75
Nova Scotia	$0.43
Northwest Territories	$3.00
Prince Edward Island	$0.70
Quebec (Municipal Tax)	$0.54
Saskatchewan	$2.14
British Columbia	Not Applicable
Manitoba	Not Applicable
Ontario	Not Applicable

[Handy1]

@Mailliw102  Yes a few posts about this just today , just another way as you mentioned already to squeeze more $ out of Canadiens .