Last updated: August 23, 2026 · Sources: TELUS media releases, BCE Form 6-K filings
Most business owners we meet have never bought an alarm system before. They bought a building, or signed a lease, and somewhere in the first month they realised the place sits empty for sixteen hours a day and nobody is watching it.
Then they get three quotes that all look roughly the same, all list roughly the same equipment, and none of them explain what any of it does. So the decision comes down to the monthly number and the logo on the truck.
Here is what actually separates one business alarm system from another, and what to ask before you sign anything.
Who owns the big alarm brands in Canada now
This is the single most common question we get, and the answer surprises people every time.
| Brand | What actually happened | When |
|---|---|---|
| ADT Canada | Bought by TELUS for about $700 million. Roughly 500,000 customers and 1,000 staff moved across. | Completed November 5, 2019 |
| Bell Smart Home | BCE sold its home security and monitored alarm assets to a.p.i. ALARM Inc. for $170 million. Bell is out of the alarm business. | Completed October 1, 2025 |
| AlarmForce | Bought by Bell, then sold on as part of the exit above. Customers have now changed hands more than once. | 2017, then again in 2025 |
So when someone tells you they are "going with ADT" in this country, they are going with Telus. And the Bell alarm customers who signed up for a Bell service are now with a company most of them had never heard of.
None of that is a scandal. Companies get bought. But it does answer the question people are really asking when they ask who owns who, which is: if something goes wrong, who picks up?
Why we know this cold. We have spent the last two years taking over systems from every one of these transitions. We wrote up what happened to AlarmForce and Bell home security and what the Monitoring Center transfer meant for its customers. The pattern repeats: the equipment stays, the rate moves, and the phone number stops being local.
What a business alarm has to do that a home system does not
This is the part the quotes never explain, and it is where most of the real difference lives.
A house has one schedule. Everyone leaves in the morning, everyone comes back at night, and the system is either on or off. A business has staff arriving at different times, a cleaner on Thursdays, a delivery door that should never open after four, and one person who locks up alone.
Those are the features that actually matter:
- Opening and closing schedules. The monitoring centre knows when your place is supposed to be disarmed. If it opens at 3am on a Sunday, that is not a normal morning, and it should be treated differently from a Tuesday at 8.
- Partitions. One building, separately armed areas. The showroom can be open to the public while the stockroom, the office and the server closet stay armed. Most home systems cannot do this. Most business quotes do not mention it.
- Individual user codes. Not one shared code that half the town knows. Every person gets their own, so the log tells you who disarmed the building and when. When somebody leaves, you delete one code instead of reprogramming everything.
- A duress code. A second code that disarms the system normally and silently tells the monitoring centre you are being forced to open up. Nothing on the keypad changes. If you have staff who open alone, this is not optional.
- Multiple keyholders on the call list, in order. When the alarm trips at 2am, who gets called first, and who gets called when that person does not answer.
- A communication path that does not depend on your internet. Cutting a phone line or unplugging a router should not take the system off the air.
If a quote does not mention partitions, individual codes or a duress code, the person who wrote it has priced you a house alarm and put it in a commercial building.
How to read a business alarm quote
Five questions. Ask all of them, ask every company, and compare the answers rather than the totals.
Where is the monitoring centre, and is it ULC certified?
ULC certification is the Canadian standard, and it is what most insurers actually ask about. Ask where the centre physically is and who staffs it at 3am. "North America" is not an answer.
Do I own this equipment at the end of the term?
Some providers use proprietary panels that stop being useful the moment you cancel. Others fit open-standard gear like DSC, Honeywell or Qolsys that any qualified company can service. Ask which one you are getting, in writing.
How long is the contract, and what does leaving cost?
Multi-year terms with auto-renewal are the industry default, not a law of nature. Find the renewal notice period before you sign, not after.
What exactly happens when a zone trips at 2am?
Make them walk you through it. Who is called, in what order, how long before police are dispatched, and what happens if nobody answers. A good answer is specific. A bad answer is "our team handles it."
Who comes out when it breaks, and how soon?
This is the one that separates a local installer from a national brand. Ask for the realistic service window on a Saturday in February. Ask whether the technician works for the company or is a subcontractor.
What a small business actually needs
A two-person shop does not need what a distribution yard needs, and most of the upselling in this trade happens right here.
For a typical storefront or small office, the honest list is short. Contacts on every exterior door. Motion coverage on the open floor and anywhere someone could hide until close. A glass-break sensor if you have a big front window. A keypad by the door people actually use. Cellular communication so a cut line does not matter. Partitions if any part of the building stays public while the rest is locked.
Everything past that should be justified by something specific about your property. If a salesperson cannot tell you why a device is on the list, it is on the list because it was on the last list.
Where it genuinely gets more complex is cash handling, controlled stock, multiple tenants in one building, or anywhere staff work alone at night. That is when access control and monitored business cameras start earning their place instead of just adding to the invoice.
Not sure whether your quote makes sense?
Bring it to us. We will walk your property, tell you what it actually needs, and tell you straight if what you have already is fine.
Call (844) 360-1234Business alarm questions we get asked constantly
Is ADT still in business in Canada?
The ADT name is still used in Canada, but the Canadian operation has been owned by TELUS since November 2019. TELUS bought ADT Canada for roughly $700 million, taking on about 500,000 customers and 1,000 staff. ADT Inc. in the United States is a separate company. So a Canadian ADT account is a Telus account with an older logo on it.
How much does an alarm system cost for a business?
There is no flat rate, and anybody who quotes you one over the phone has not seen your building. What moves the number is how many doors and windows need covering, whether you need partitions, whether cameras or access control are part of it, and which monitoring level you choose. A corner store and a two-storey office with a loading bay are not the same job.
Our assessment is free, and you get exact numbers after we have walked the property rather than before.
Can I write off a security system for my business?
We install alarms, we do not do tax, and you should get this answer from your accountant rather than from a security company's website. What we can tell you is which two things to ask them about, because they are usually treated differently: the equipment you buy and have installed, and the ongoing monitoring service you pay for monthly.
Bring your accountant the itemised quote with those separated out. We will happily break an invoice down that way if it helps.
What is the best alarm system for a small business?
The one designed around how your building is actually used, which is a boring answer but the true one. For most small businesses that means open-standard equipment such as DSC, Honeywell or Qolsys, individual user codes rather than one shared code, cellular communication, and ULC-certified monitoring. Brand matters far less than whether the person who designed it walked your property first.
Are DIY security systems any good for a business?
For a business, usually not, and the reason is not the hardware. DIY kits are built around one person getting a phone notification. A business needs somebody to act when that person is asleep, on a plane, or is the one being forced to open the door. DIY kits also tend not to support partitions or duress codes, and self-monitored systems generally do not satisfy insurers who ask for ULC-certified monitoring.
Can I keep my existing alarm equipment and just change companies?
Very often, yes. If your building has open-standard equipment on the wall, it can usually be reprogrammed to report to a different monitoring centre without replacing the panel or the sensors. Proprietary systems are the exception and generally cannot be taken over. We check for free either way, and we will tell you if the honest answer is that your gear is too old to be worth keeping. That process is called an alarm system takeover.
What is the difference between a business and a commercial alarm system?
In practice the two terms get used interchangeably, and most companies including us use whichever one the customer used first. If there is a distinction people mean by it, "commercial" tends to describe larger or multi-site properties with access control, fire monitoring and integration into building systems, while "business" tends to describe a single storefront or office. The technology underneath is the same family of equipment.
The short version
Buy the response, not the brand. The logo on the truck has changed hands twice in this country in the last seven years, and it will probably change again. What does not change is whether somebody competent answers at 2am and how long it takes them to get a technician to your door.
If you want the full breakdown of what goes into a system and how installation works, that is all on our business alarm systems page. If you would rather just have somebody look at your building and tell you the truth, call us.
