At inception of a contract, we assess whether that contract is, or contains, a lease. A contract is, or contains, a lease if the contract conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration. To assess whether a contract conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset, we assess whether:

We record a right-of-use asset and a lease liability at the lease commencement date. The right-of-use asset is initially measured at cost, consisting of:

The right-of-use asset is depreciated on a straight-line basis over the lease term, unless we expect to obtain ownership of the leased asset at the end of the lease. The lease term consists of:

If we expect to obtain ownership of the leased asset at the end of the lease, we depreciate the right-of-use asset over the underlying asset's estimated useful life. In addition, the right-of-use asset is periodically reduced by impairment losses, if any, and adjusted for certain remeasurements of the lease liability.

The lease liability is initially measured at the present value of lease payments that are not paid at the commencement date, discounted using the interest rate implicit in the lease or, if that rate cannot be readily determined, our incremental borrowing rate. We generally use our incremental borrowing rate as the interest rate implicit in our leases cannot be readily determined. The lease liability is subsequently measured at amortized cost using the effective interest rate method.

•the exercise price under a purchase option that we are reasonably certain to exercise, lease payments in an optional renewal period if we are reasonably certain to exercise an extension option, and penalties for early termination of a lease unless we are reasonably certain not to terminate early.

The lease liability is remeasured when there is a change in future lease payments arising from a change in an index or rate, if there is a change in our estimate of the amount expected to be payable under a residual value guarantee, or if we change our assessment of whether or not we will exercise a purchase, extension, or termination option. When the lease liability is remeasured in this way, a corresponding adjustment is made to the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset. The lease liability is also remeasured when the underlying lease contract is amended.

We have elected not to separate fixed non-lease components and account for the lease and any fixed non-lease components as a single lease component.

Certain leases contain provisions that result in differing lease payments over the term as a result of market rate reviews or changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or other similar indices. We reassess the lease liabilities related to these leases when the index or other data is available to calculate the change in lease payments.

Certain leases require us to make payments that relate to property taxes, insurance, and other non-rental costs. These non-rental costs are typically variable and are not included in the calculation of the right-of-use asset or lease liability.

In order to classify each lease as either finance or operating, we make an overall assessment of whether the lease transfers to the lessee substantially all of the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the underlying asset. If it does, the lease is a finance lease; if not, it is an operating lease.

We act as the lessor on certain collocation leases, whereby, due to certain regulatory requirements, we must allow other telecommunication companies to lease space on our wireless network towers. We do not believe we transfer substantially all of the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the underlying leased asset to the lessee and therefore classify these leases as operating leases.

If an arrangement contains both lease and non-lease components, we apply IFRS 15 to allocate the consideration in the contract between the lease and the non-lease components.

We recognize lease payments received under operating leases into income on a straight-line basis. All of the leases for which we act as lessor are classified as operating leases.

We estimate the lease term by considering the facts and circumstances that can create an economic incentive to exercise an extension option, or not exercise a termination option. We make certain qualitative and quantitative assumptions when deriving the value of the economic incentive.

We make judgments in determining whether a contract is or contains a lease, which involves assessing whether a contract contains an identified asset (either a physically distinct asset or a capacity portion that represents substantially all of the capacity of the asset). Additionally, the contract should provide us with the right to substantially all of the economic benefits from the use of the asset.

We also make judgments in determining whether we have the right to control the use of the identified asset. We have that right when we have the decision-making rights that are most relevant to changing how and for what purpose the asset is used. In rare cases where the decisions about how and for what purpose the asset is used are predetermined, we have the right to direct the use of the asset if we have the right to operate the asset or if we designed the asset in a way that predetermines how and for what purpose the asset will be used.

We make judgments in determining the incremental borrowing rate used to measure our lease liability for each lease contract, including an estimate of the asset-specific security impact. The incremental borrowing rate should reflect the interest that we would have to pay to borrow the funds necessary to obtain a similar asset at a similar term, with a similar security, in a similar economic environment.

Certain of our leases contain extension or renewal options that are exercisable only by us and not by the lessor. At lease commencement, we assess whether we are reasonably certain to exercise any of the extension options based on our expected economic return from the lease. We are typically reasonably certain of exercising extension options on our leases, especially related to our networks, primarily due to the significant cost that would be required to relocate our network towers and related equipment. We reassess whether we are reasonably certain to exercise the options if there is a significant event or significant change in circumstance within our control and account for any changes at the date of the reassessment.

We make judgments in determining whether a lease should be classified as an operating lease or a finance lease based on if the agreement transfers substantially all the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the underlying asset.

We primarily lease land and buildings relating to our wireless and cable networks, our retail store presence, and certain of our offices and other corporate buildings, as well as customer premise equipment. The non-cancellable contract periods for our leases typically range from five to fifteen years. Variable lease payments during 2021 were $21 million (2020 - $23 million).

Below is a summary of the activity related to our lease liabilities for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021. Certain of our lease liabilities are secured by the underlying right-of-use assets; the underlying right-of-use assets have a net carrying amount of $338 million as at December 31, 2021 (2020 - $240 million).


	Years ended December 31
(In millions of dollars)	2021	2020

Lease liabilities, beginning of year	1,835	1,725
Net additions	386	320
Interest expense on lease liabilities	74	70
Interest payments on lease liabilities	(69)	(67)
Principal payments of lease liabilities	(269)	(213)


Lease liabilities, end of year	1,957	1,835

Current liability	336	278
Long-term liability	1,621	1,557

Lease liabilities	1,957	1,835