TELUS started construction on Cortes Island
Cortes Currents
English - June 01, 2023 21:34 - 2 minutes - 6.7 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 started construction Monday, May 29, exactly two weeks after they notified Cortes Currents that Tla’amin First Nation had given them the go ahead to build a cell tower on their land.
It has been two and half years since the communication giant informed the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) that they planned to construct three cell towers on Cortes Island and two more on Quadra.
The SRD refused to give their approval unless TELUS held public meetings. So TELUS approached First Nations, who are not under SRD authority. They built a cell tower on We Wai Kai land in Drew Harbour, Quadra Island, in February 2022. TELUS also approached the Tla’amin First Nation, about building on the parcel of land they own in Mansons Landing.
Cortes Currents visited the site on Thursday June 1. A security guard escourted me up the newly constructed dirt road to the edge of the property, where a sign warned that “Trespassers will be prosecuted under Tla’amin Law.” An excavator was working up ahead and the whine of a chainsaw announced they were still cutting trees. Dozens of logs were piled beside the road.
Samantha Statton later supplied some images of fairly substantial second growth trees that had been felled, but did not wish to comment.
The security guard did not wish to comment either. However when I pointed out the white truck with the logo ‘Belconn Construction’ on the side he admitted there was no point denying the obvious. They were the subcontractors.
Cortes Currents approached half a dozen people in Mansons Landing for comment. No one expressed support for the project. A couple of people vented their frustration off the record. Only one agreed to a short interview.
“My name is Tammy and I live on Sutil Point Road, pretty close to where the new cell tower is going up,” she said.
CC: “Do you have any thoughts about it?”
Tammy: “I feel that there should have been more real community consultation about the tower and its location. I am all for more connectivity. I think that's a good thing for emergency services, but I'm disappointed that the location chosen is so close to a residential area.”
CC: “It is on First Nation land, meaning different government.”
“It is,” she acknowledged.