At its January 25 meeting, Huntsville’s planning committee requested that the contractor working on behalf of Bell Mobility conduct another public meeting, this time in person, to address concerns surrounding a proposed 35-metre monopine (looks like a pine tree) telecommunications tower at 27 Hoodstown Road.
Huntsville resident Peggy Peterson spoke to committee about concerns regarding the health impacts of the 5G towers. She also told committee residents had not had a proper opportunity to voice concerns – referring to two virtual public meetings conducted on behalf of the proponent. She said misinformation, poor sound, and other technical issues were the culprits.
Committee learned that there had been confusion regarding the address given for the proposed tower, which had to be corrected.
Peterson also referenced a legal case in the US won by Robert Kennedy regarding the risk of 5G towers and WIFI on children and adults. She said she has been researching the subject for some time and wanted to plant a seed of doubt in council’s mind as to whether a G5 tower is the right solution.
“Bell Mobility is worried because they know the technologies that are coming out to provide our rural areas with good internet services are going to blow them out of the water. We’ve got inground, we’ve got satellite, we’ve got Starlink coming and Bell Mobility knows it, that’s why they’re rushing these towers… this is radiation, there’s no doubt about it that you get radiation off these towers,” said Peterson.
Evan Turunen, of Canacre Limited, was before council from a remote location on behalf of Bell. He told committee that the public meetings had been coordinated through the Town’s planning department.
Deputy Mayor Dan Armour asked Turunen to speak to the 5G network. “Health Canada is the exclusive regulator for these types of issues. They regulate any telecommunication facility and any broadcast equipment including your cell phone, WIFI is regulated through Safety Code 6.” He said a study was conducted to show the tower would be in compliance with the Code and it would operate 90 per cent below any maximum Health Canada levels, which are reviewed by the Ministry periodically. “EMF (electromagnetic field) is generally everywhere. Every time you run a current through a wire, you’re getting some EMF,” he added.
Asked about existing 5G infrastructure in this community, Turunen said it was most likely being rolled out. “I don’t know what Bell’s radiofrequency engineers have planned.”
Given the concerns about 5G towers, Councillor Scott Morrison asked if the tower could instead be on the 4G network. He said many people seem to want the infrastructure “and I wonder if 4G will still accomplish your reach… and maybe placate some of the concerns.”
Turunen said he could only speak to the land use aspect of the tower. “I wouldn’t be able to commit Bell to building a 4G tower, especially as they are committed to upgrading their infrastructure to provide improved service.”
Councillor Dione Schumacher also told council that she’s heard from residents who have such bad signal that they’re unable to make an emergency call.
Coucillor Cory Clarke suggested that council defer endorsing the tower in favour of another in-person meeting. Council agreed. Turunen said he wasn’t sure what another meeting would accomplish.
“It would appear that some members of council feel that the public wasn’t fully consulted and they need an in-person meeting in order to allow everyone a chance to speak,” said committee chair Bob Stone.
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There are many full time retired residents at Fox Lake and the North end of Lake Vernon who do not have any cellular service. I can occasionally receive a single bar by standing outdoors at the far end of my deck. Over Christmas for 6 days we were without hydro, wi fi, cellular service and our land lines were out amidst a record breaking snowstorm.
If an emergency had developed I’m not sure how we could have alerted anyone.
Councillors should be speaking directly with the home owners at Fox Lake and Vernon who are directly impacted by this lack of infrastructure. We don’t need naysayers living in town discrediting what could be a life saving technology for area residents!
Fears of radiation from cell towers are completely groundless. They spread on the internet along with fears of fluoride in water and vaccines. They should be ignored completely.
We are directly affected by this decision. As things are now, we have very poor cell service and almost zero internet. The proposed tower will give us good cell service and good internet at a small fraction of current costs. we need progress, not overturn to pony express.
Despite its high initial space-age hardware cost, with the correct sky exposure, Starlink can solve any cell phone, internet data and tv streaming issues Bell has not covered over many years of neglect. A handy person can install it easily. No Starlink maintenance is required: the dish both heats and orients itself automatically; the latency, and download and upload speeds are excellent, even in inclement weather. Wifi calling on cell phones works well on it. Economies of scale will likely bring the monthly cost down as well. One can keep an annually negotiated landline for power outage emergencies and international calling advantages, although WhatsApp calling and others cover the latter well enough for most folks.
I think we can probably put the fears of having our brains cooked by cell phone radiation behind us by now. If we are really worried about RF radiation, maybe look at things like the TV tower that I am told broadcasts with a power of about 600,000 watts and then there is CFBK on the same tower and somewhere The Moose and hundreds of other stations.
Police, Fire EMS radios.
Bluetooth everywhere.
Probably the cell radiation is greatest from your own phone, after all you hold it in direct contact with your ear which is about as close to your brain as you can get. so a weak signal from it is likely much worse than the power dissipated from a cell tower.
Don’t forget that your home is filled with wires, carrying 60 cycle electricity for lights, heat you name it too. This and the stuff it powers all radiate energy too if your worried about such stuff.
More to the point for me is that the fancier the cell phones get the worse they seem to be at actually being able to hold a connection and let one talk. My ancient flip phone worked far better at catching and holding a call and had far less echo talk than the new Iphone I have now. There are times when I think a couple of cans and a string might actually work better than my apple phone, although at least occasionally I get into a conversation with Siri on the new phone. She seems interesting.
The bottom line is that Bell, for me is a giant unresponsive animal that costs an arm and a leg to do anything and then seems to do it poorly. Like I said the cell system is not very reliable. The land lines suffer from static and noise such that frequently we have to just hang up and try the call again.
We invented the darn phone here in Canada, you’d think we would have the best and cheapest system in the world but we don’t seem to.
Bell has been telling us that fiber optic cables will “soon be here” for 20 years now. I know there are cables on poles in the area but I think, honestly, that I’ll be having tea with Spock and Kirk with the Enterprise parked on my back lawn before I see fiber optic from Bell. Fiber optic service is bit like nuclear Fusion, just 20 years away and it has been for over 60 years for Fusion.
Maybe, on the other hand, when Bell says “fiber” they mean cheerios or shredded wheat and we are all expecting something they do not have?