Not sure what region of Canada you are from, but as far as I can tell they just shifted from a contract model to a balance model where you amortize the cost of your phone using your monthly payments.

In the end what changes if how transparent they are with pricing, before it was 60$/month with a brand new phone and 55$ if you brought your own device, now it's. 55$/month and you can bundle a phone for 5$ more.

This is in Quebec.