1) Google plan to use Toronto as a pilot for a “smart city” has fallen aside for various reasons, among which was major controversy about the plan to capture huge amounts of personal data.
Alphabet gives up its plan to build a futuristic neighbourhood in Toronto
“Google’s parent company is abandoning a controversial plan to turn Toronto’s waterfront into a futuristic neighborhood.
Sidewalk Labs, the subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOG) focused on smart cities, will no longer help develop the Canadian city’s Quayside neighborhood, it announced Thursday….
Alphabet started working on the project in 2017, committing more than $50 million to reducing traffic congestion, carbon emissions and landfill waste using technology. But the plan quickly sparked controversy because of concerns over the amount of citizen data it would collect, and was widely slammed by privacy campaigners and politicians.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/tech/alphabet-toronto-sidewalk-labs-smart-city/index.html
2) I have only skimmed this ISED strategy, but I found some things that are disturbing. There are plans to use the need for rural internet to loosen the already virtually non-existent regulations, and making it easier for wireless infrastructure to be built and used. I didn’t see in my quick scan anything re fiber optic cable and community-owned networks but, hopefully, a more thorough read will find such concepts at least considered.
High-Speed Access for All: Canada’s Connectivity Strategy – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada:
“To meet our goals, our investments must be effective. The Government of Canada will sequence and align its programs and minimize overlap with partners’ investments and target investments to areas where there is a limited private-sector business case for investment. In addition, the Government will consider open-access provisions – which allow smaller and independent telecommunications providers to rent space on larger providers’ existing infrastructure, often at favourable wholesale rates – to ensure that benefits of the investments are maximized.
Another area that enables effective investments in networks involves use of the radio frequency spectrum – the airwaves used to transmit sound and data wirelessly. The Government of Canada is actively managing this limited resource to maximize economic and social benefits to Canadians, including those in rural and remote communities.
A major cost of building and operating networks is associated with the poles, underground ducts, towers and other structures, otherwise known as passive infrastructure, that make it possible to build networks. The Government of Canada will engage partners to work to reduce these costs, so that networks are less expensive and can connect Canadians sooner. This involves reviewing policy and regulatory frameworks on antenna towers and support structures, considering related advice from the forthcoming review of communications legislation, engaging internally to advance the issue and promote best practices, and raising awareness of the issue among stakeholders.
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/139.nsf/eng/h_00002.html
3) An article filled with so many horribly wrong statements and information, it must be refuted by well written and documented letters, hopefully by people living in the area. I suspect the editor will pay more attention to subscribers than those outside the “Tricity” area.
And if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll sign the petition and ask friends and family to do so, as well, even though the petition doesn’t address the major issue and neither does it ask for cell towers to be farther than scientific articles have shown to still cause harm. But this could get some attention given that the MP sponsoring is Chair of HESA.
Coquitlam-PoCo MP sponsors petition that says cell towers could hurt children, trigger cancer
“Launched by a Port Coquitlam resident, the appeal has been picked up and shared by a number of conspiracy groups online, some using the petition as part of a campaign to block the development of 5G technology, others to keep Wi-Fi out of schools for fear that it negatively affects children’s development.
“There’s no science behind them at all. The science is very clear on that,” said Steven Salzberg, a professor of bioengineering at Johns Hopkins University, who regularly debunks poorly researched science for the publication Forbes.”
(click on photo to enlarge)
Petition (Open for signatures until May 26, 2020)
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2424
Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” Abraham Lincoln