Kootenay Tribe

The Crescent Valley Community Hall in the Slocan Valley was packed to standing room only the afternoon of May 27 to hear a program of speakers discussing 5G and “15-minute city” concerns. Introduced by Nadine Podmoroff, the audience heard a presentation by Geoff Snicer via Internet of the climate action plan being implemented by the city of Kamloops. Shonna Hayes of Light Field Solutions spoke about electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) and 5G technology. Nelson activist Brian McLachlan, a former board member with the Nelson Ecosociety (now West Kootenay Ecosociety), also spoke on the 15-minute city theme. McLachlan and Snicer echoed common concerns that carbon reduction plans are the thin edge of the wedge that greatly increases our carbon tax burden and limits both our ownership of property and our freedom of movement.

“We have to ask, why are we not limiting the corporate elite’s pollution? Why is all the focus on our emissions?” said McLachlan. “Who is really benefiting from these plans? The corporate elites are flying in private jets and driving in limos to private meetings in Davos, can you see the irony?”

Climate Action Plan controversy

Podmoroff presented Powerpoint slides on 15-minute cities by Geoff Snicer of Kamloops, marred unfortunately by a poor Internet connection and nearly inaudible sound. While Kamloops is only one city adopting a 15-minute city plan, Snicer stressed that it follows a similar model to those being implemented around the world through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 goals related to the drastic reduction of carbon emissions, said Snicer, “sound good in theory, but will ultimately result in people giving up their freedom to central government control.” Most provincial governments, including BC, have passed climate action legislation modeled after the UN program.

In BC these are covered by multiple acts including the Zero Emission Vehicles Act, the Transportation Master Plan, and at the municipal level through Official Community Plans (OCPs) and the Local Government Climate Action Program. Much of this is potentially beneficial, for example building out more transit infrastructure in urban areas to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. But some of it simply isn’t feasible in a huge province like British Columbia, dominated in area if not in population by rural communities. Active Transportation Planning grants that provide municipal funding to encourage “British Columbians to choose walking, cycling, skateboarding and other active methods to get to their destinations,” aren’t a viable option in a spread-out community like the Slocan Valley. However, both New Denver and Slocan have received grants to increase “active transportation” within the communities.

Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) director Aimee Watson has acknowledged in a letter to the Valley Voice (May 4, 2023) that “the original plan that began in 2018, the Renewable Kootenay Plan, had language fit for a city and was not adopted by the RDCK board. Instead, we directed staff to go back and develop a rural plan that is supportive of the residents, not punitive.” In response to recent criticism by concerned citizens, the RDCK has stated on its website that “the concept of 15-minute cities is not included in this plan.” They stress that at this point, “this is a guidance plan not a regulatory plan.”

However, as Snicer explained, BC’s carbon reduction legislation will eventually compel them to meet provincial targets and Slocan Valley residents are particularly concerned about zoning and bylaw changes that have the force of law. Changes to BC legislation include the Zero Carbon Step Code that will transition building codes to a zero emission goal by 2030. Initially, these requirements will be voluntary, but will transition to increasingly stringent building emission standards, requiring all new buildings to be zero carbon by 2030. Concerns were voiced at the meeting that this could make new construction prohibitively expensive in an already overheated real estate market. Some were concerned that the Code could apply also to residential buildings, requiring expensive retrofits. However, according to Jan McMurray, editor of the Valley Voice, “The Climate Action Plan talks about the provincial BC Step Code. This program is for new builds only. The RDCK Climate Action Plan also talks about the provincial Retrofits Programs, and how the RDCK will encourage energy efficiency in renos, but not to require that residences be renovated.”

The provincial Zero-Emissions Vehicle Act also introduces “an accelerated zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) law requiring that 26% of light-duty vehicles be ZEV by 2026, 90% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.” The RDCK’s Climate Action Plan calls for a complete shift to ZEVs of its fleet by 2035, starting with a complete fleet inventory this year. The Slocan Valley is well known to be a low-income region, so new ZEVs are out of reach for many families, and the RDCK plan to build more charging stations is unlikely to help them. However, the plan calls for an increase in transit ridership by offering free or subsidized fares for seniors, students and low-income people as well as carshare, rideshare and bikeshare programs. Once again, however, provincial legislation may trump regional regulation, with the Zero Emission Vehicles Act requiring that by 2040, “100% of all light-duty motor vehicles sold or leased in BC must be zero-emission vehicles.” Presenters at the meeting said they had seen no plans for how the electrical grid would be upgraded to meet the increase in consumption.

The Spectre of 5G

5G is poorly designed for mountain environments like ours, its ultra-short wavelength requiring booster antennas about every 100 metres and dependent upon line-of-sight. This makes it all but useless in rural areas and prohibitively expensive. By contrast, fibre optic cable can carry a signal 20 kilometres before requiring a booster. KiN, a nonprofit society, has a fibre optic network that covers a 70 kilometre area around Kaslo. They plan to expand all the way to Meadow Creek and Cooper Creek, remote communities at the north end of Kootenay Lake currently lacking reliable Internet service. Eventually they plan to replace “last mile” fibre connectivity currently served by wireless with fibre optic direct to customers’ homes. The KiN network has made possible Kootenay Lightweb, an independent initiative that has raised funds to purchase and install secure local servers with independent power backups.

Shonna Hayes of Light Field Solutions presented slides at the Crescent Valley hall explaining the science of electromagnetic fields (EMFs). She briefly addressed the health and environmental concerns of the new 5G network currently in various stages of development across BC, mostly in urban centres. Although microwave frequency radiation emitted by 2G, 3G and 4G devices has been studied extensively, 5G has had little research done as regards potential health effects. A well-established body of peer-reviewed science has been published showing increased incidence of cancer and other illnesses within close range of cell towers, so these should never be situated in residential or business cores.

Hayes would like to see EMFs factored into RDCK policies governing environmental toxins, particularly regarding the siting of cell towers and related transmission equipment. “There are health risks that we simply do not understand,” she said.

Hayes has kept detailed data of EMF radiation levels in Nelson since moving there in 2014, including photos that show the progressively greater number of transmitters on the Telus and provincial government buildings. Using some 30 different radiofrequency meters, she has kept a log that reveals an exponential increase in radiofrequency radiation in Nelson’s downtown core from 2014 to the present. “Depending on what frequency you’re hunting, you use a different tool.” Hayes was hired by the Ministry of Environment to measure EMF levels in the government building, which has added several new transmitters disguised as smokestacks. The hospital also has increased its transmitters since 2014, with 5G and Tetra antennas, the system used by police and emergency services. People living in close proximity to Tetra systems often report chronic migraines, inability to concentrate, disruptions in sleep patterns, and other chronic health issues. Moving further away from a transmission tower often solves the problem.

Part of the problem, Hayes explained, is the “regulatory wild west” that reigns in Canada, with Safety Code 6 being purely a voluntary standard for industry and based on decades-outdated science that claims only frequencies high enough to heat tissue are damaging—a disproven claim. Maximum exposure levels are set so high that no one could possibly exceed them, yet are often 100 times lower in European countries. Federal regulator Industry Canada—now Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada—is responsible for governing the telecommunications industry but as implied by the agency’s name, places an emphasis on economic development, not health or environmental concerns.

Hayes also spoke about the “dirty electricity” generated by high-voltage power lines. Regulations favouring industry allow for grounding in the earth instead of using proper grounding lines, she said, and we don’t know what impacts this could have on either health or the environment. “It’s always tricky to know whether something is caused by EMF because it’s so subtle.” Hayes would like to see the RDCK adopt a similar policy as the City of Toronto, which has both an antenna siting policy and follows the internationally recognized precautionary principle, requiring a “tiptoe up to technology” approach until it’s proven safe.