Matthew Liebenberg
SaskTel hosted an open house in Swift Current to share information about a proposed cell tower in a south side neighbourhood and to receive feedback from residents, but those opposing the development are sceptical that their concerns will be heard.
The public meeting took place from 6-8 p.m. at the Legion Hall in downtown Swift Current, Oct. 29.
The event had a come and go format with a display of poster boards to provide details about different aspects of the proposed 35-metre-high cell tower and equipment building. Subject matter experts from SaskTel were present to discuss the project and answer questions from open house attendees.
The proposed cell tower will be located on City-owned land in the 200 block of 3rd Avenue SE, just north of the south side outdoor rink.
Greg Jacobs, external communications manager with SaskTel, said the poster boards provided all the pieces of information pertinent to the construction of a new cell site.
“The idea of the town hall is to get more feedback from residents,” he noted. “We’ll take that feedback in, we’ll consider that and then we’ll determine what our next steps are. As things sit right now, we do have a letter of concurrence from the City of Swift current to proceed, but we wanted to go through this additional due diligence to ensure that we’re listening to residents and that we can answer their questions in a satisfactory manner.”
He explained the reason for SaskTel’s decision to host this open house after the City has already provided a letter of concurrence for the proposed cell tower.
“Generally speaking, in a public consultation, it’s the land use authority that requests a town hall,” he said. “In this case, that’d be the City of Swift Current. We did not get a request from the City of Swift Current to host a town hall. However, after we received the letter of concurrence, we continue to hear from residents and that continuous feedback is really what triggered us to decide to host a town hall tonight.”
SaskTel followed public consultation guidelines of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), the federal authority responsible for regulating and authorizing the location of wireless telecommunications facilities. One of those guidelines is that information packages must be mailed out to homeowners or landowners within three times the height of the proposed structure.
Jacobs indicated that incorrect information about the number of information packages was provided to the City, but this error was corrected. A total of 34 notification packages went out, but in some of SaskTel’s correspondence with the City it was indicated that more packages went out than the actual number.
“It is true to say that there was a miscommunication between SaskTel and the City of Swift Current, but we’ve corrected that prior to the decision that we received from the City,” he said.
SaskTel has already submitted the City’s letter of concurrence for the proposed cell tower to ISED.
“We have not heard any negative feedback from ISED,” he said. “As far as we understand, they’ve accepted the letter of concurrence from the City of Swift Current and we are clear to proceed, but as I said before, we’re hosting this town hall to gather more feedback and ensure that we are answering questions from residents.”
The details from the open house will therefore become additional information that SaskTel can provide to ISED for the cell tower application.
“The regulator will intervene if they have a concern,” Jacobs noted. “If they do not intervene, it’s approval to proceed. We have not heard any negative feedback about the public consultation process or the proposed cell site. And generally speaking, if the land use authority is supportive of a project or has provided a letter of concurrence, there has to be some very significant issue for ISED to weigh in.”
Among the attendees at the open house were Kris and Mat Green, who own two residential properties directly next to the proposed cell tower location. The one property is their home and they rent out the other property. They played a leading role in starting a petition to oppose the tower and to get signatures.
Kris felt the come-and-go format of the open house was not helpful in getting answers from SaskTel.
“We asked for a public meeting with a question-and-answer period,” she said. “What we’re having is more propaganda, because all they’re doing is pushing how good the cell tower is. They’re not accounting for all the mistakes they made during the consultation period and not following the guidelines of the ISED, and that’s what we wanted.”
She added that SaskTel President and CEO Charlene Gavel and Corporate Services Manager for Real Estate and Towers Dylan Storle should have been present at the open house to answer the questions of concerned residents. However, Kris was pleased with the good turnout at the event.
“I’m really happy with the amount of people who have come out, but I think everybody here is pretty frustrated,” she said. “This isn’t what they were expecting. That’s the feedback I’m getting from everybody.”
A surveyed site plan for the proposed cell tower was on display at the open house. It indicated the distance from the centre of the tower structure to the property line is 10.54 metres. The rental property of the Greens is just on the other side.
“That just enraged me,” Kris said about the close proximity of the proposed structure to a residential property. “This is wrong. Like right out the back doors of people’s houses.”
Another poster board on display at the open house indicated the alternate locations that were explored by SaskTel for the proposed cell tower. It includes the exhibition grounds at Kinetic Park, the S3 Arena grounds, the Windscape kite festival site or the adjacent southview reservoir site, a piece of land between Riverside Park and the railway line, as well as several other sites in proximity to residential areas on the south side.
SaskTel identified the site at 225 3rd Avenue SE as the best location for improving network coverage, but she questions its proximity to homes.
“I’m not an engineer, but you can’t tell me that a couple of blocks make a difference,” Kris said.
She is determined to continue her opposition to the proposed cell tower at its current location. She is questioning the City’s decision to provide a letter of concurrence and the way SaskTel carried out the process.
“I’m not talking about frivolous complaints here,” she said. “I’m talking about rules that were not followed. I have done so much research and I know the rules that the ISED has written. SaskTel didn’t follow them and they’re trying to make it out to be just some little typo or an oversight, but this is our lives.”
Valerie Tienkamp attended the open house due to her concerns over the proximity of the proposed cell tower to her home. Information provided at the event referred to Health Canada’s Safety Code 6 guidelines that set regulatory compliance standards with safety limits for human exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, but she is still worried.
“I have done research and I have spoken to neurologists, and I know that it is dangerous,” she said. “Everyone has heard don’t put your cell phone in your bra, like young people do, you’ll get breast cancer. Don’t put it too close to your head, you’ll get brain cancer. So, they want to put it 100 feet from my house and just rain the same stuff down on me and try to convince me it’s safe.”
She is also sceptical about SaskTel’s motivation to put up the new cell tower to improve network coverage.
“None of us have ever had a dropped call or any issue,” she said. “So why are they putting a big tower up there to make us not have dropped calls? We already don’t. We don’t want the ugly thing dropping our property values, which it will. And it’s not fair to pop it in there without care of what we want.”
Tienkamp was disappointed about the absence of City council members as local elected representatives at the open house.
“We pay them and we vote for them to keep our interests at the forefront, and they don’t even care enough to show up at this meeting or address our concerns respectfully,” she said. “That doesn’t say very good things about our elected officials of our city if they don’t care enough to even show up.”
She feels the City could have done more to ensure that the concerns of residents are considered and addressed.
“They should have rules in place, like most other cities do, on where these towers can be put, because all of our property values drop and some of us have been there a very long time,” she said. “This is sprung on our neighborhood without our consent or even consideration.”
Pastor Travis Heide from the Mt. Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is a street block north of the proposed cell tower site, attended the open house due to his concern over the well-being of the neighbourhood.
“I know as little about procedures and policies and exactly what regulations are being appealed to as the least knowledgeable person here, but as far as I’m concerned, this is more of a heart issue than a head issue,” he said. “As someone who cares for this community, it breaks my heart when I see people not being listened to.”
He emphasized that he was only speaking in his private capacity and he attended the event with an open mind. He felt the motivation for selecting the proposed site over the alternative sites was not clear and its close proximity to homes might set a bad precedent.
