CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Prospectus and the documents incorporated herein by reference contain forward-looking statements about Bell Canada’s and BCE’s business outlook, objectives, strategies, plans, strategic priorities and results of operations as well as other statements that are not historical facts. A statement we make is forward-looking when it uses what we know and expect today to make a statement about the future. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the wordsassumption, goal, guidance, objective, outlook, project, strategy, target and other similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such asaim, anticipate, believe, could, expect, intend, may, plan, seek, should, striveandwill. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the “safe harbour” provisions of applicable Canadian securities laws and of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Unless otherwise indicated by us, forward-looking statements contained in this Prospectus describe Bell Canada’s and BCE’s expectations, as applicable, as at the date of this Prospectus and forward-looking statements contained in the documents incorporated herein by reference describe Bell Canada’s and BCE’s expectations, as applicable, as of the date of such documents, unless otherwise indicated in such documents. Except as may be required by Canadian securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are based on several assumptions, both general and specific, which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements and that Bell Canada’s and BCE’s business outlook, objectives, strategies, plans, strategic priorities, results of operations and other statements that are not historical facts may not be achieved. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and we caution prospective investors against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are provided in this Prospectus and in the documents incorporated by reference for the purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our business outlook, objectives, strategies, plans and strategic priorities as well as our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned, however, that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.
Forward-looking statements made in this Prospectus and in the documents incorporated herein by reference are based on a number of assumptions that BCE or Bell Canada, as applicable, believed were reasonable on the day they made the forward-looking statements. Refer, in particular, to the Sections of the BCE 2017 Annual MD&A entitled “Business outlook and assumptions”, on pages 44, 45, 61, 62, 69, 70, 76 and 77 of the BCE 2017 Annual Report for a discussion of certain key economic, market and operational assumptions that BCE or Bell Canada have made in preparing forward-looking statements, as such disclosure shall be updated from time to time in BCE’s and Bell Canada’s continuous disclosure documents incorporated by reference herein. If our assumptions turn out to be inaccurate, our actual results could be materially different from what we expect.
Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this Prospectus or the documents incorporated by reference are disclosed in Section 9 of the BCE 2017 Annual MD&A included in the BCE 2017 Annual Report on pages 97 to 102, under the heading “Business risks”, as well as in the other sections of the BCE 2017 Annual MD&A referred to therein, as such disclosure shall be updated from time to time in BCE’s and Bell Canada’s continuous disclosure documents incorporated by reference herein.
Readers are cautioned that the risks referred to above are not the only ones that could affect BCE and Bell Canada. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to BCE or Bell Canada or that BCE or Bell Canada currently deem to be immaterial may also have a material adverse effect on BCE’s or Bell Canada’s financial position, financial performance, cash flows, business or reputation.
Except as otherwise indicated by us, forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any special items or of any dispositions, monetizations, mergers, acquisitions, other business combinations or other
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