New regulations close tower-site ‘loopholes,’ Moore says

OTTAWA — Industry Canada is updating its wireless tower-site rules to remove “loopholes” that allowed wireless providers to build shorter towers without first consulting local community members, Industry Minister James Moore said. In a press conference at Industry Canada’s Ottawa office Wednesday, Moore said the department will now require wireless providers to consult with local community members before they build any new towers, regardless of the towers’ height, and that the companies must ensure residents are “well-informed” of their plans. “It’s no secret that many Canadian homeowners have concerns about the location of these cell towers in their neighbourhoods,” Moore said, noting that there are currently about 10,000 wireless towers across the country. “Too often, Canadians have told us that they did not have a say in where cell towers were built in their communities. In some cases, residents weren’t even aware that a new tower was going to be installed until it was already up and running.” Under previous Industry Canada guidelines, established in 2008, wireless providers were not required to consult with municipalities or community members before installing cell towers that were less than 15 metres high. Under the new guidelines, Moore said, companies will be required to inform municipalities of their plans to build new towers, and will also have to send “personalized” notifications of their plans to residents who live within a certain distance of a proposed tower location. Companies must also consult community members before building new towers to reach an agreement on where those towers should be located. If they can’t reach an agreement on a location, they can approach Industry Canada to make a final “determination,” the department said in a backgrounder provided to journalists Wednesday. The Industry Department will also now require companies to build towers within three years of completing a public consultation. If a company fails to meet this timeline, it will have to re-launch the consultation, Moore said. “Very often these companies have sought out the capacity to build towers, and then they wait and then five years can go by, even 10 years can go by, an entire community is developed, and then all of a sudden towers pop up,” Moore said. “It affects peoples’ property values, it affects the esthetic of a community, and even some health concerns have been raised about their proximity to schools and homes.” Marc Choma, spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), said in a phone interview that the new Industry Canada guidelines mirror a protocol the CWTA released last year in conjunction with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). That protocol, which CWTA’s members have agreed to abide by in communities that request them to do so, also called on those wireless carriers to hold consultations before erecting towers under 15 metres high and said providers must consider what other options are available before submitting a proposal for a new antenna site. Alternatives include site sharing, or modifying or replacing an existing antenna site, the CWTA said at the time. “Those were exactly the amendments that were in there,” Choma said of the new Industry Canada guidelines. “We would still encourage all communities to use that template,” he added of the CWTA protocol. Brock Carlton, FCM’s chief executive, said his organization has received “positive commentary” about the group’s tower-site protocol over the past year, though he could not provide numbers on how many communities have agreed to use the FCM and CWTA template for cell-tower planning. He said he was pleased to see the government codify the protocol through its own regulations. “Making it official policy or regulation just ensures that there are no outliers and everyone is playing by the same rules,” he said. Cannacord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose said in a research note Wednesday morning — based on a Global News report that had a leak on what Industry Canada’s announcement was going to be — that any new restrictions on shorter cell towers could disadvantage new entrant carriers, which he said have relied on the previous consultation exemption for shorter towers “to build networks quickly in urban areas where approvals are lengthy or unlikely.” Moore said at the press conference that the new rules should affect all carriers equally, particularly when coupled with mandatory tower-sharing rules that require larger providers to share space on their towers with the new entrants on negotiated terms. “I think we actually have the right balance and the tower-sharing policy, coupled with the duty to consult, I think is not something that’s too onerous,” Moore said. Anthony Lacavera, CEO of new entrant carrier Wind Mobile, said his company has previously installed towers under 15 metres high in communities when it has been unable to negotiate a suitable location for a larger tower. “There were many places where we wanted to build a bigger one and we were just not able to get approval, so we ended up building two or three sub-15ers,” he said. “But obviously the higher you can go, the better. You get better propagation from a higher point.” Lacavera, whose company is not a CWTA member, said he believes the new Industry Canada rules will benefit the wireless industry as a whole by providing more clarification about the department’s expectations for new towers. It’s his hope, he added, that the department will follow up Wednesday’s announcement in the near future with newly strengthened tower-sharing rules that will make it easier for industry players to reach tower-sharing agreements. “I hope they’re sending the message that, ‘We don’t want to see more towers. We want to see more tower sharing,’” Lacavera said. “We want to be a good local community participant. If we can move half a kilometre and it makes everyone’s life easier and everybody’s happier, under normal circumstances, we’d be happy to do that.” — With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

New regulations close tower-site ‘loopholes,’ Moore says

News | February 5, 2014

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New regulations close tower-site ‘loopholes,’ Moore says

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