Sensing a lack of broad community consultation regarding the proposed Rogers Communications tower replacement at the Gibsons fire hall, Gibsons council has called for a town hall meeting to address community concerns before any decision is made.
The decision to host the town hall meeting, which was endorsed by all members of council at their committee of the whole meeting May 21, came after a pair of delegations.
The first was from area residents Barry Haynes and William McDonagh who represented the group Citizens Against Cell Tower Radiation, many of which were in the overflow gallery inside council chambers for the presentation.
Haynes outlined concerns including health aspects and the harms that will be caused to residents living so close to the tower, the ugly aesthetics of the tower, the possibility of lowering property values, and the lack of consultation with residents.
"The main problem with cell towers is that people living within 400 metres of the tower get a continuous bombardment of radio frequency transmission signals 24/7 that could be harmful to them," said Haynes. "Does Gibsons council want to make their own citizens fear for negative health effects living within their own homes and also lower the property values of those homes? Gibsons council and the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) has the right to not allow Rogers to place the tower on the Gibsons fire station property. That is what we are asking Gibsons council and the SCRD to do here."
The Rogers proposal would upgrade the fire hall's existing infrastructure, improving emergency 9-1-1 services and Gibsons fire department radio dispatch service, while also improving Rogers' commercial network.
Discourse has ramped up the past few weeks while Rogers has been completing its consultation process, which started in January. A petition of more than 200 signatures was sent to Rogers and copied to Gibsons and the SCRD two weeks ago.
The second delegation was from Rogers Communications.
Peter Leathley, municipal specialist for network implementation and Kiersten Enemark with Standard Land talked about the consultation strategy, which they feel has been adequate, the reasons why they were looking at the upgrade and other resident concerns.
Leathley said Rogers looked at other locations for the tower, but only the fire hall site met the company's network requirements.
"Rogers is seeking to improve 4G high speed wireless service. Moving any further away would reduce Rogers' network performance," said Leathley.
Enemark said the existing tower is in need of replacement and Rogers sees this proposal as a win-win for everyone.
"This is a chance for the community to receive excellent wireless communication services and save the local government money in not having to replace the existing tower themselves. This will be at Rogers own expense," she said. "We are seeking your support in our continuing to work with the Town in moving forward with an agreement for the use of land at the fire hall station for a multi-use communications tower."
She said that Rogers was not opposed to providing the Town with annual updates on EMF energy emitting from the tower to ensure it always stays low and that the company was not opposed to revisiting the tower design as a term in the lease agreement.
Mayor Wayne Rowe said the matter puts council in a fairly impossible position when talking about the health aspects.
"We have to rely on Health Canada and the experts, but having said that, one of the things that has me concerned is the consultation process," said Rowe. "We should not be at the stage where we are having competing delegations such as this. I certainly would be leaning towards going back to the drawing board."
Rowe then suggested a town hall meeting hosted by the SCRD, Town of Gibsons and Rogers where a much broader discussion could take place on the concerns and implications of the proposal.
No date or location has been announced yet for the town hall meeting.
