Free community phones to replace payphones near Sayward after outcry
Sayward residents concerned about Telus’s plan to remove two payphones from remote areas along the Island Highway are relieved they’ll be replaced by no-charge community phones.
Residents of the community on northeast Vancouver Island had lobbied Telus to keep the payphones when they learned they were to be shut down on May 13, calling them “lifelines” along a twisting highway without cellphone coverage.
The new community phones will be in the same locations as the payphones: Sayward Valley Resort, about nine kilometres southwest of Sayward, and Roberts Lake Resort, midway on the 70-kilometre stretch between the village and Campbell River to the south.
Telus said in a statement they will allow free calling within B.C. “to ensure there is reliable access to emergency services until wireless connectivity comes to the area.”
Current payphones will continue to work until the community phones are installed.
Sayward Mayor Mark Baker called the Telus decision to install community phones “excellent” news.
Baker said he learned the value of the payphones first hand when he arrived at the scene of an accident near Roberts Lake one fall evening three years ago.
A car was in a ditch and the driver would not have been able to walk to the payphone at Roberts Lake about four to five kilometres away, said Baker, who was able to drive to the payphone and call an ambulance.
“It’s definitely not the first accident we’ve come across. This is why the payphone is very important.”
Terry Kluytmans of Sayward said to be on the highway with “absolutely no form of communication is frightening.”
The Island Highway in that area is a “bad road with dangerous drivers,” she said.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been passed on a double solid line right before a curve.”
In December 2021, Kluytmans was heading south to Campbell River when another car flipped over three times across the highway, ending up in a ditch.
“I pulled my car around and I’m running towards the car, crying to myself: ‘Please God, please let him be alive.’ ”
She stayed with the man — who was not seriously injured — and flagged down other drivers, sending them to a local hatchery in hopes it had a landline, since she was still 20 kilometres from the Roberts Lake payphone.
“It just proves that there needs to be some place on our highway for people in emergency situations like that.”
Even with new free community phones, Kluytmans said, “it’s still a Band-Aid solution” for the region until cell service is available. “They need to do better.”
Faye and Frank Morgan, owners of Sayward Valley Resort, have one of the two Telus payphones on their property and estimate it has been there since at least the 1980s.
A notice announcing it would be shut down was posted on the phone, but has now been removed, Faye said.
The phone has not worked for months, she said, but was used “a lot until it quit working.”
“It’s sad that it has to be a public outcry to get the attention of these big companies. But if that’s what it takes, that’s what we’ve done,” said Frank, who is chief of the Sayward Volunteer Fire Department. He said the phones are useful for people wanting to report wildfires.
Jake Carson, who manages bookings and social media for Roberts Lake Resort, said the payphone was nice to have, but did not always work, so people in need would often come into the office to use the resort’s phone.
Kristen White, who advocates for Indigenous people in the area, called Telus’s decision to install the community phones “great news.”
White, who is concerned for the safety of women along the highway, said Telus should be installing more “land-line, lifeline payphones” in vulnerable areas, not removing them — especially since many people do not own cellphones.
Telus said payphone use has declined steadily in the past two decades due to the popularity of cellphones and wireless coverage across Canada.
As of Wednesday, there were still 187 payphones in B.C., including 29 pay phones on Vancouver Island, the company said.
B.C.’s wireless network reaches more than 99 per cent of the population, said the company, noting it has “invested heavily to connect rural highway corridors to a reliable wireless signal to enhance the safety of travel across our province.”
When payphones are removed, the company said, it often works with local businesses, municipal governments and the community to ensure there are alternate options within a reasonable distance.
Some decommissioned payphones are kept for display purposes in partnership with communities and local organizations “to ensure they can stay within the community as an acknowledgment of a shared piece of technology history,” Telus said.
Anyone interested in seeing payphones showcased in a local museum or community centre can email Telus at telustickets@wimactel.com.