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Recommendations presented to council Monday Continued from page 1 3 · Thursday, March 15, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com context by stating that the municipality has virtually no authority to say where new cell towers go. The federal government, specifically Industry Canada, holds that power, she said. After the Town passed its draft Telecommunications Facilities Protocol in October 2011, Industry Canada representatives met with Town staff to discuss the protocol's features. "With respect to the 200-metre setback, Industry Canada has determined it to be `onerous', without justification and unsupportable for their process," said Anderson in a report to council. "It limits the ability for new facilities that potentially already have some form of approval from Industry Canada to be located within areas that require service." Anderson said this is a problem because the only power a municipality has over a new cell tower is when Industry Canada requires a telecommunications provider to obey a municipality's telecommunications protocol to get a letter of concurrence. If the Town adopts a protocol Industry Canada will not support, the Town gets no say or consultation on where or how the cell towers are built. Anderson also discussed the advantages of going with a 20-metre setback in the protocol, which Industry Canada will support. "Having Industry Canada uphold our protocol would mean that we could set out the type of information we want to receive when they (telecommunications providers) come forward with the application. We'd have the advantage of setting out design elements for the Town based on the types of structures," she said. "We can set out priorities in terms of siting locations on a site in terms of best preferred, least preferred. We can set out some design considerations, restrictions for the equipment, signage, flags. We can set out what they need to do in terms of public notification and consultation." Some residents are not taking news of the proposed setback reduction well, fearing the health impacts of potentially bringing cell towers closer to homes and schools. They also voiced concerns about holding the meeting immediately after the end of March Break. "I've got people calling me from the Bahamas and saying, `Oh my God. Should I take a flight home?'" said Wendy Cockburn, who has actively protested the commercialization of the cell tower at the corner of Bronte Road and Rebecca Street. "They have the power to defer this point on the agenda so more people can attend when they are not on March Break. They also have the power to deny it." Ward 2 Town Councillor Pam Damoff also weighed in on the meeting agenda. "I was very surprised to see it changed from 200 to 20 metres," said Damoff. "I was also really disappointed with the timing because it came out to the public the Friday before March Break and it's coming to council to be dealt with the Monday after March Break so there will be people in the community who won't even know this happened." Damoff, who said she will be out of the area on a long-planned trip when the vote takes place, said she is hoping councillors will defer the item so the public has an opportunity to see what is there and to comment on it. "It's quite a change from what went out in the draft," said Damoff. "Regardless of how you feel on the health affects, I feel the municipality should be able to choose what it feels are reasonable setbacks and if the federal government doesn't agree with it then they can overturn our decisions when the applications come in. I think we should be able to make the choices for what we want to see in our community." The Ward 2 councillor also pointed out that while the 200-metre setback was for all sensitive- land uses (including dwelling units), the proposed 20-metre setback only references schools and daycares. The cell tower setback discussion comes less than three weeks after residents organized a meeting to discuss their concerns about the potential health impacts of the radiofrequency waves that come from cell towers. During that meeting, a study was presented that warned of health problems occurring within 500 metres of a cell tower. In Anderson's report to council, the Region's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Bob Nosal, weighed in on the cell tower issue stating there is "no convincing or consistent evidence that the weak radiofrequency signals from base stations cause adverse health effects." Nosal, however, did acknowledge the agreement between Health Canada, the World Health Organization, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer that additional research is warranted. 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