‘These changes are part of our ongoing business operations and reflect several initiatives’
BCE, the parent company of Bell Canada, is cutting another 690 jobs — about 1% of its workforce, by the company's count — in a reorganisation that forces HR and labour-relations teams to manage layoffs and voluntary union departures at once.
The company confirmed the cuts to CBC News, which reported the move continues a reorganisation begun late last year. BCE is laying off roughly 460 non-unionised employees and targeting about 230 unionised positions through voluntary departures, according to a separate report from The Globe and Mail.
Bell tied the reductions to its operations and several initiatives. "These changes are part of our ongoing business operations and reflect several initiatives," it said in an email to CBC News, "including the migration of customers to a more resilient, easier-to-maintain fibre network and ongoing operating efficiencies."
The round extends a multi-year cycle. In November 2025, Bell cut nearly 700 jobs — about 650 non-unionised management roles plus 40 at Bell Media. In February 2024 it eliminated about 4,800 jobs, roughly 9% of its workforce, after shedding around 1,300 positions in June 2023.
The cuts sit inside an explicit financial commitment: $1.5 billion in savings by 2028 through a "companywide transformation and continued focus on operational efficiencies," set at BCE's 2025 investor day.
Profitable as it cuts, and betting on AI
The cuts are not a response to losses. Last month BCE reported quarterly profit of $616 million, or 66 cents per diluted share, against $630 million a year earlier. Even so, it is steering capital toward AI: chief executive Mirko Bibic has said BCE raised its AI-revenue target by about a third, to roughly $2 billion by 2028, CBC News reported.
In March 2026 it announced a $1.7-billion AI data centre near Regina, projected to generate up to $12 billion in economic value and support about 800 construction jobs.
Separately, BCE has dismissed employees for what it called "deliberate and repeated falsification of workplace attendance" — swipe-and-go behaviour under its three-day in-office policy, CBC News and The Globe and Mail reported.
The company said those firings were not part of the layoffs and affected no unionised staff.
The terminations are contested: a Toronto employment lawyer said he represents more than 30 fired workers disputing the for-cause label.
