VANCOUVER — Telus Corp. will look to find $900 million in annual cost savings by the end of 2028 as it divests non-core assets and seeks to “double down” on telecommunications investments.
Telus president and CEO Victor Dodig, who took the helm of the company in July, said in an interview on Friday that the cost reductions will come from “a combination of everything.”
“A lot of it also has to do with the way we do business. So, for example, having our customers deal with issues through our app and modernizing our app and putting more self-serve out there,” said Dodig, who was previously chief executive of CIBC.
“The banking sector has been very good at it, and I think the telecom sector can do more. It takes a lot of pressure points and pain points out for customers, so we can focus our time on the things that matter most to them, and that’s solving for their needs rather than solving for their problems.”
By the end of 2028, the company expects to achieve a level of efficiencies equivalent to approximately $900 million in savings per year going forward.
Around 80 per cent of the cash savings will come from the core telecom side of the company, with the balance from Telus’ global platform businesses. The company said the strategy focuses on improving customer service, customer growth and revenue per product.
Achieving the lofty savings target by 2028 is one of the pillars of a transformation strategy unveiled Friday as the company reported its third-quarter results. The quarter saw Telus report a loss as it took an $800-million non-cash charge related to Telus Health.
Dodig said the transformation is meant to strengthen Telus’ financial foundation, hone its operational discipline and control costs, and deploy resources to drive profitable and sustainable growth and returns.
The strategy includes monetizing non-core assets, with a near-term priority on Telus Health and Telus Agriculture & Consumer Goods.
Dodig said those businesses are “probably best in the hands of other capital providers over time so that we can take the resources that we free up and redeploy it into the Canadian telecom and digital infrastructure sector.”
He said the company is already in “advanced discussions on one Telus Health asset” with a prospective buyer.
“There’s just a broad thinking around, ‘How do we, as Telus, ensure that we maintain a position as the leader in telecom and digital infrastructure in Canada at a time where our country is facing an investment super cycle?’” he said.
“How do we ... free up the resources that we have to redeploy into that industry that we think has really good growth and return prospects going forward?”
While Telus sees potential growth from the telecom side, Dodig said that will require investment, noting over one million homes across Ontario and Quebec don’t yet have access to fibre internet, along with many in Western Canada.
Telus will also look to build out its digital infrastructure, including through further investments in AI data centres. Earlier this year, the company announced plans for three B.C. facilities, adding to its factory in Rimouski, Que., that launched a year ago.
In addition to those, it plans to leverage its fibre network to provide connectivity to data centres not owned by Telus.
Telus said its loss attributable to common shares amounted to $667 million or 42 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $493 million or 32 cents per share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, Telus earned 16 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 24 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Operating revenue and other income totalled $5.03 billion for the quarter, down from $5.11 billion a year ago.
Dodig said Telus’ telecom business has shown signs of stabilization. Its total telecom subscriber connections for the quarter reached 18.3 million, up from 17.2 million in the third quarter of 2025.
It added 84,000 net mobile phone subscribers in the quarter, an increase of 2,000 year-over-year. Its mobile phone churn rate — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.01 per cent in the quarter, an improvement from 1.11 per cent a year ago, which Telus said was largely due to its focus on customer retention and network quality, along with successful promotions.
Mobile phone average revenue per user was $57.22 in the quarter, which was flat year-over-year.
Telus reported it signed up 10,000 net internet customers, a decrease of 30,000 year-over-year, reflecting “a greater emphasis on premium and profitable” subscriptions. There were 289,000 connected device net additions, an increase of 120,000 year-over-year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2026.
By Sammy Hudes
