Shortly after I returned to Ormstown, I learned that Bell wanted to erect a 5G tower on a plot of municipal land zoned park/green space, at the end of Linda Street — a spot near my mother’s house where I walk often.
The timeline tells its own story: Bell approached the town March 2, the initial hearing was held May 20, an information session — explicitly labeled not a public consultation — followed June 10, and the window for public comment closed June 26. In exchange, the town stands to receive roughly $10,000 a year in lease payments — a number that doesn’t come close to what this land could be worth as a park, a community garden site, and a “third place” — a gathering spot beyond home and work — that the growing Jamestown neighbourhood could benefit from.
I’m not fundamentally opposed to telecom infrastructure. What should concern every citizen is how this happened: a small ad in The Gleaner that most residents never saw, and only seventeen “affected” households in the bare minimum 105-metre radius sent a flyer easily mistaken for junk mail. That’s it. I asked questions. I showed up at Town Hall. But by the time I attended the council meeting on July 6, the vote had already been passed — the same day I submitted my own design proposal for an alternative use of the site. Too late.
Bell says other locations were considered, including the town’s water tower — perfectly situated, but ruled out for structural reasons, since it’s aging and problem-prone. That’s exactly the conversation I feel the town could have pushed further: a new water tower with the 5G antenna mounted on top, funded by Bell in lieu of a paltry rent. Two infrastructure problems solved at once, without giving up green space. It’s worth saying plainly that there’s a lack of whole-systems thinking and regenerative future planning here.
Ormstown isn’t alone in this. Hemmingford is fighting a 600-to-1,000-house development over concerns about how much the aquifer can bear. Powerscourt is battling water-bottling companies pushing to expand. The pattern is the same everywhere: quiet notices, minimal consultation, and decisions residents learn about only once they’re final. Technically, the town and the promoters did what the law requires — the bare minimum. That’s the problem. This approach does not invite inspired citizen participation.
If we don’t start informing ourselves, pushing for more transparency, and participating, this will keep happening, and there are long-term consequences. Whole-systems thinking means asking what a shared resource is actually for, before handing it away for short-term pocket change. Ormstown has other development decisions coming, and with MRC funding set to come into the entire Haut-Saint-Laurent region, this will be a pivotal decade for strategic planning. If we want to design a regenerative future, it’s time we started thinking about the bigger picture. Too bad, no new water tower, no new park.
Mehta Mayah
Ormstown
Editor’s note
A small advertisement on the proposed Bell mobility telecommunications tower ran in the May 20 edition of The Gleaner. Articles on the tower were also published in the March 11 edition as well as the June 17 edition.