Communication Tower approval process remains outside of municipal control

Sep 02, 2020

Not many people in North Frontenac Township were aware of the existence of CRINS-SINRC (The Canadian Radio Communications Information and Notification Service) before mid August.

CRINS-SINRC was formed in 2011 in New Brunswick as an organisation that, under contract from municipalities, carries out a consultation process in order to provide a recommendation to the federal government, which has the sole authority to approve or reject a proposed tower.

According to Todd White, Executive Director of CRINS, who spoke with the Frontenac News this week, the parameters that determine what issues and what information is relevant to their analysis and ultimate recommendation, are pre-determined by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the federal agency that licenses communications towers.

CRINS-SINRC is currently undertaking a review of a 100-metre tower that, it is proposed, will be located on a property in Snow Road. In a document that was provided to residents living within the immediate vicinity of the proposed tower and other parties who have requested it, CRINS-SINRC described the proposal from a company called SBA Canada.

“SBA Canada has identified this area in North Frontenac, Ontario, as an area in need of new wireless infrastructure in order to support the requirements for improved service and add additional mobile and internet service providers. Based on the investigation into signal strength, … , it was determined that the Subject Site represents the most preferred location for a new communication tower. As an independent tower owner and operator, SBA ensures equal access to all our towers sites and the proposed tower has the capacity to support telecommunication equipment from up to three different mobile service providers, internet service providers, various government agencies and first responders.”

In recent years, complaints about the state of telephone infrastructure in areas close to the proposed tower have been brought to Bell Canada and the township on a number of occasions. Frontenac County is also a member of the Eastern Ontario Regional Network, an agency whose goal it is to improve both Cell Phone and Internet Service in Eastern Ontario.

According to North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, the SBA proposal is not related to any of the EORN funding programs, “but is something that is welcomed by many, but not all, North Frontenac residents.”

A number of residents who live in close proximity of the tower have raised objections, both to the process that CRINS-SINRC has undertaken, and to the height of the tower and its proximity to private, public, and commercial enterprises in Snow Road.

Sven Shlegel, who operates Mariclaro, a company that makes bags from repurposed materials from cars and airplanes, at a home-business property adjacent to the property where the tower is proposed, has raised initial objections about the process CRINS-SINRC has undertaken. In an email to Todd White, Shlegel pointed out that a number of documents that are relevant to the public consultation process were not included in the information package that was provided by CRINS-SINRC. These documents were provided quickly when requested, and for Shlegel this shows that the “information was available but withheld from the public information package.”

Shlegel also points out that, unlike other similar consultation processes, notification of the proposed tower was not published by CRINS-SINRC in the Frontenac News, the only newspaper published in the Snow Road area.

Todd White said that as part of its adaptation to COVID-19, CRINS-SINRC has shifted completely away from print media in most cases in favour of online services, particularly Social Media, saying they have proven to be more effective.

Shlegel does not agree.

“I find it especially concerning that the notification was only published through internet based communication, on the website of the township and on the private social media platform Twitter and Facebook. There was no public notification in the local newspaper. It cannot be expected that all members of the community have equal access to the internet, or are users of the private platforms of Facebook and Twitter.”

Some of the other issues that have been raised by Shlegel and other opponents of the process and, ultimately, the tower itself, were already being considered as part of the review process, Todd White said.

The fact that the proposed location is a provincially designated “Area of Natural and Scientific Interest” (ANSI) has triggered a request for comment from the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, and concerns of species at risk in and around the site have triggered a request for comment from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

White said the concerns over radiation levels in the vicinity of Cell signal infrastructure are not part of the tower construction process, and will only be considered when companies come forward to install equipment on the tower.

He did mention, however, that the location and height of the tower are such that Navigation Canada has indicated that lighting will be required. This may result in a conflict with the Dark Designation that North Frontenac has attained from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. In attaining the designation, North Frontenac has adopted specific lighting policies as suggested by the Royal Astronomical Society.

White also pointed out that the township of North Frontenac’s formal input into the process comes in the form of a “letter of concurrence” to be submitted to the federal government. The letter is strictly about concurrence of the project with the planning documents that the township has adopted and is prepared by the township planning consultant. It does not refer to the opinion of one or more members of council about the project, it is strictly a technical document.

White said that the process is not open ended, but that there is opportunity for information from community members to be received and responded to, and there is an opportunity for the public to provide further responses.

He also said that CRINS-SINRC has established a strong relationship with the federal government, and while the government is not bound to follow its recommendations, whenever CRINS-SINRC has concluded that a proposed structure cannot be constructed at a given location, in conformity with all of the parameters set out by the government, those proposals have ultimately been rejected by the government.

The same is true for the projects it has recommended for approval.