I guess nothing in these parts ever gets solved quickly and easily, but it's mystifying why we're still dealing with the radio towers issue.
When news of the towers being relocated from Ferndale to Point Roberts broke last summer, it was soon revealed that Tsawwassen had been omitted from the application to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. This hardly had the look of an oversight, but rather a deliberate attempt to circumvent regulations that keep radio towers, for good reason, away from populated areas.
It also seemed like an easy fix, a situation that could be immediately rectified once lawmakers on both sides of the border recognized the folly of the project, or at least the siting of it.
Yet here we are more than half a year later and we've got residents in both countries continuing the battle to keep these towers out of our back yard. They've held a series of meetings and rallies, all the while raising money to fight the issue in the U.S. capital as well as at the county level.
Kudos have to go to the well-intentioned folks who have fought to keep the blanketing interference that comes with these towers out of our communities, but should it really have to be this hard? Should these people have to go to such trouble and expense to stop something that not only doesn't make sense but wouldn't be permitted had all the information been available to decision makers in the first place? Couldn't federal Industry Minister James Moore make all this just disappear with a bit of international diplomacy? Even our own MP, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, must carry some clout as the minister of national revenue.
It seems hard to believe that high ranking officials on both sides of the border couldn't get together and solve this thing in a single meeting. That would be much easier than having so many people spend so much time and money trying to wade through bureaucracies on both sides of the line.
The bottom line is that regulations are in place because radio towers belong in isolated areas, not on the doorstep of communities of more than 20,000 people. It's well documented what has transpired in Ferndale over the years, where residents have endured interference with pretty much every electronic device imaginable due to the radio waves.
It makes absolutely no sense to replicate that situation in Tsawwassen and Point Roberts, so let's hope a little political muscle can be exerted in order to arrive at the only logical conclusion.
