New TELUS tower on Quadra Island operational
Cortes Currents
English - February 20, 2022 16:43 - 2 minutes - 5.39 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Telus’ new 73-meter cell phone tower in Drew Harbour, Quadra Island, is now operational.
Heriot Bay residents reported intermittent service when the system was being tested, close to two weeks ago.
“The new site brings dramatically increased cellular service throughout the Heriot Bay area, the ferry route between Quadra and Cortes Islands, and surrounding waterways to Read Island,” a spokesperson for Telus told the Bird’s Eye. “Residents and visitors are able to use their wireless devices (such as cell phones and tablets) to make phone calls, send and receive emails and text messages, easily stream videos, and use social media apps. Most critically, these improvements also enhance safety and access to emergency services throughout the area, as more than 70% of phone calls to 911 come from a cell phone.”
As the site is land owned by the We Wai Kai Nation, it is outside of the Strathcona Regional District’s (SRD) jurisdiction.
Never-the-less, on April 20, 2021, Brian Gregg of SitePath Consulting emailed the SRD Board, “As you know, the land use authority in this instance is the First Nation however we wanted to send your team a copy of the upcoming newspaper notice as a courtesy to keep the SRD aware of TELUS’ plans in the area. We have full support of the We Wai Kai Nation Chief and Council and wanted to ensure that your team is in receipt of this notification as a courtesy.”
The first of two notices about this project appeared in the Bird’s Eye the following day. Residents were given until the close of business on June 4th to comment.
Looking out into Drew Harbour from Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island - Photo by Dale Simonson via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)