Northern Bruce Peninsula is not on board with a proposed cell tower.
Council approved taking the stance of non-concurrence for the proposed cell tower at 75 Lindsay Road 40 during a meeting on May 13.
While the final decision to install the tower is up to Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, council can still say if it agrees with the project.
The proposed 90-meter tower was first proposed to Northern Bruce Peninsula by Shared Tower Inc. in June 2022 to improve service around Dyer’s Bay.
A commenting and reply period with residents ended in February, where the municipality received questions on health and safety, existing infrastructure and preserving dark sky related to the project.
There has been some push back from the community on the proposed tower with council recently reviewing a number of submissions from residents expressing opposition.
This is the latest after council deferred making a decision on the proposed project last month as not all members of council were present.
Coun. Laurie Golden reiterated her comments made at the last meeting, saying she felt the consultation process did not provide all the needed information related to the project.
“I would be a huge hypocrite if I was to say that I considered this to be a comprehensive, un-biased successful consultation process. My opinion is that it would be in everyone’s future best interest to restart this process,” says Golden.
Coun. Todd Dowd says he was in favour of non-concurrence as he felt council should not start the process of proceeding with the proposed cell tower until they get it right.
“I do support cell phones, I do support cell phone towers. This one could perhaps be better, some place better that would serve us,” says Dowd.
He adds while they are not a partner in this project, by voting non-concurrence, they could perhaps steer it to better service Northern Bruce Peninsula.
While there were talks of restarting the process, CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West says as this is not a municipally owned tower, Northern Bruce Peninsula lacks control over initiating a restart.
Council will be submitting a letter of non-concurrence to ISED.
