The Cell Tower Blues in North Frontenac

Jeff Green | Jan 09, 2025

Margie McAlear is not a fan of North Frontenac Council, nor is she keen on a cell tower that is slated to go up in the township, just across from her home on the Matawatchan Road, in Renfrew County

Her neighbours, who live across the road in North Frontenac, entered into a contract with Rogers Communications to locate a cell tower on their property.

The approval authority for the tower project is a federal agency, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). The township where the tower is located has a limited role in the approval process. It is required to ensure that adjacent property owners to the property where the tower is to be located are notified and provided an opportunity to comment, even though the grounds for preventing or requiring a change to the location of a tower are limited.

In order to facilitate this process, ISED established a third-party organisation, called CRINS, to oversee the approval process for local municipalities. CRINS has never been particularly reliable, and in fact Central Frontenac pulled away from them and began to oversee the process within their own boundaries.

In North Frontenac, late in 2023, CRINS was tasked with notifying the 9 adjacent landowners to the Matawatchan Road property about the proposed tower. CRINS submitted a report to North Frontenac Council, which said that the 9 property owners had been notified, and no comments had been received back. North Frontenac Council then approved the project from their end, their role in the process being ostensibly complete, and the tower is on the work list for the cell gap coverage project, for construction before the entire project is slated to be completed, sometime in 2026.

The only problem, according to Margie McAlear, is that the notices never arrived in her mailbox, and after asking around she compiled a list of 6 other neighbours, who also claim not to have received the notices.

“I only found out about the tower when some workers began doing some soil samples on my neighbour’s property, right across from the front of my property,” she said.

That began a frustrating process for Margie and her husband Donnie. They are not happy with the tower, to say the least, with Rogers, or their neighbour. The now approved location of the tower is just over 300 metres from their house, the legal minimum. It is a 300-foot high tower that is going in, and according to what they have been told, it will not be outfitted with lights.

 “But I don’t really believe that. Our concern is that the 360-degree view that was one of the reasons why we bought out property will be eliminated by this ugly tower. We are also concerned about the signals coming off the tower and the health effects from those. And our property value will decrease. The irony is that we don’t even have a cellphone between us. We have no use for one,” she said, in an interview with the News.

Ever since she found out about the tower, McAlear has been in constant contact with the township to see if there is anything that can be done. She has sent dozens of emails to Chief Administrative Officer Cory Klatt regarding the matter, sometimes several in a single day. In one of his responses, Klatt said that he would attempt to contact CRINS for proof that the letters were sent out. Since then, he has not acknowledged, in his emails to Margie McAlear, that he has heard back from CRINS.

She also had requested to be a delegation to Council, hoping for December 13, but that day was full, so she is scheduled for this Friday, January 10th.

In late December, after the delegation was scheduled for January 10th, Mayor Gerry Lichty wrote to Margie McAlear to inform her that she should no longer contact CAO Klatt on the matter, as it is now scheduled to come before Council, making it a council, and not a staff matter.

She has since been informed, by a Rogers employee, Chenette de Gannes, who informed her that “there was no chance of either halting the installation, or relocating the tower at this point in time. Really bad news.  Rogers has already drilled to obtain core samples for the engineers.”

Nonetheless, she claims that the township abrogated its responsibility by accepting the CRINS claim that the notifications were mailed to the 9 adjacent property owners. CRINS did not send the letters via Registered Mail, so she says that there is no proof that they were received.

That will be a key issue for Council to consider after hearing from the McAlear’s on January 10 (tomorrow).

Council will have the option to hear the presentation and decline to comment, or it may consider its options regarding its approval of the project.