Proposed Cortes Island TELUS cell tower on Tla'amin land

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) has no authority over TELUS’ proposed 63 metre high cell tower site in Mansons Landing.

This is in the former Paukeanum Indian Reserve No. 3, which has been governed by the Tla’amin First Nation ever since the Tla’amin Final Agreement with the governments of BC and went into effect on April 5, 2016.

Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson confirmed “The Regional District doesn't have any land use authority here, and therefore is not going to be involved in any way. As your elected representative to the regional district, I really don't have a voice here either. The Federal government does not approve siting of these towers. There is sort of an arbitration process if everything else fails, but if the Tla'amin Nation, chief and council would like the tower erected on their lands, then that's really between them and TELUS.”

This matter was discussed at the December 8th meeting of the SRD Board, where CAO David Leitch informed the board that TELUS is locating towers on many First Nations lands throughout BC and Canada.

“If it is on First Nations land, you have no authority,” he said.

As no one lives within 190 metres of the proposed site, which is three times greater than the height of the tower, TELUS will not send out written notices.

On December 1, TELUS placed a notice of their intention in the Birds Eye, which serves Quadra Island.

Anyone with concerns was invited to contact Brian Gregg of SitePath Consulting by email or surface mail, prior to January 31, 2022.

Anderson added, “Comments really need to be written to both Telus and Tla’amin."

Late last Spring, Gregg emailed Cortes Currents that TELUS is responding to longstanding requests for enhanced connectivity:

“This is important not only for convenience but also for public safety since the majority of calls to emergency service responders are now placed via wireless devices. Sadly, we have been advised that a number of community members on the Discovery Islands have died or been hurt in recent years and they were unable to call for help. Wireless service can help with this safety issue.”

He also said that 5G is the current evolution on wireless networks around the globe, but in a rural area like Cortes will be similar to 4G/LTE in many respects.

“In every case, TELUS' installations will comply with Health Canada's Safety Code 6,” wrote Greg.

Photo credit: Apple iPhone SE 2020 by Aaron Yoo via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)