CWTA raises concerns about tower review process to strike balance between sides

Canada’s wireless industry is generally pleased with the process that has been proposed to review the current antenna tower policy, but it does have some concerns about the ability of the review committee to strike an appropriate balance between real and perceived problems. The April 15 issue of Report on Wireless detailed the review process David Townsend, chair of the review committee, has proposed (RoW, April 15/03). Canada’s wireless lobby is concerned about the effectiveness of the proposed process to gauge Canadians’ opinions. "Certainly, the concept does have the advantage of allowing a lot of people to get involved. It will be interesting to see whether it does capture a broad range of opinion from across the country," says Peter Barnes, president and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA). "I’m far from an expert in Internet democracy, but I think there are probably some people that are more apt to use the Internet to voice opinions and I’m not sure the opinions that are voiced are the same that they would be if you were in a meeting environment where you’re talking through an issue. But it will be interesting to see what the process gives," Barnes tells RoW. Rogers Wireless Inc. (RWI) hopes the process will be thorough. "RWI hopes that a full airing of the issues followed by an opportunity for further comment and reply will provide professor Townsend with the factual information as well as answers to the important operational, policy and legal questions concerning the maintenance and development of world class radiocommunications in Canada," Dawn Hunt, Rogers Wireless’ VP of government and regulatory affairs, writes in an email to RoW. Barnes notes that the process can’t be allowed to get caught up in a handful of problem cases that don’t reflect the reality of the current antenna tower siting system. He adds that the consultation process can’t be allowed to focus on individual cases. Instead, it needs to look at both situations with problems and those without, but also the process needs to recognize that in the majority of cases there aren’t problems with communities or community groups, he says. "I don’t know how many towers go up in a year, but if you were to look at a sample of 100, you’d probably find that the vast majority of them go in without trouble. I think it’s a pretty good indication of the system working well. The challenge is going to be for the process to reflect that overwhelming majority as opposed to focus on one or two cases where there might be justifiable concerns. "It’s impossible to construct a process which will be perfect in all cases. The public policy challenge here is to assess whether the existing process provides fully satisfactory, not outstanding, but a fully satisfactory assessment so that the vast majority of the tower sites go up without problems in the locality and within a reasonable amount of time. The objective is to assess whether the existing process, or to the extent there’s a new process required, that that will be appropriate in the vast majority of cases." RWI agrees with the CWTA that the process must reflect the reality of the current situation. "While there has been controversy in an extremely small number of cases, in the majority of cases little or no resistance has arisen that has not been adequately addressed through existing processes," Hunt writes. Confidence in Townsend high Despite some concerns from the wireless industry about the process, the CWTA, Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless are confident that Townsend, a University of New Brunswick law professor, can strike a balance between the industry and municipalities. Don Woodford, Bell Mobility’s director of government and regulatory affairs, is cautious about making specific comments on the review process itself, but is confident the review will be fair. "Bell Mobility is confident that, in the interests of the orderly development of Canada’s wireless infrastructure, Dr. Townsend and his (review) committee are aware of the need for balance in the consideration of all views put forward. We also believe that the committee will strive to produce recommendations that take into consideration the interests of and are fair to all stakeholders," Woodford writes in an email to RoW.

CWTA raises concerns about tower review process to strike balance between sides

News | 04/29/2003 4:00 am EDT

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