Collingwood Council received an update on Wifi at the Collingwood Public Library from CAO Kimberly Wingrove on Monday, October 18th. 

On September 27th, a motion came before Council requesting that wireless internet connectivity be immediately removed from the Collingwood public library, and that the town move toward hard wiring all of its own facilities. 

In order to understand the additional information necessary to make an informed decision, Council directed staff to prepare the outline of a staff report on the issue and provide an estimate of the costs to have the report completed.

A staff report prepared by CAO Wingrove stated that a comprehensive report for Council’s consideration would need to provide the following information:

Part 1:  Issue Overview

• Identification of all stakeholders (both sides)
• Concerns of stakeholders (both sides)
• Summary of recent background research (based on scientific studies to include:  links to studies, articles, statements from health officials and Ministers of provincial government departments)

Part 2:  Wifi at the Library

• Overview of all wireless connectivity in the library building
• Consideration of Public Libraries Act and comparison to other public libraries in the province
• Impact discontinuing wifi on library service
• Physical ramifications of moving to hard wiring in the library building
• Cost of hardwiring the library for current service levels
• County of Simcoe ownership of wifi equipment at the library
• Summary and analysis of information from the Simcoe County Board of Education on same issue

Part Three:  Wifi in Other Town Facilities

• Inventory of buildings with wifi
• Impact of discontinuing wifi on town services
• Options for alternative service delivery
• Physical ramifications of moving to hard wiring or other alternative
• Costs of hardwiring or other alternative

The CAO concluded in her report that a realistic timeline to perform bona fide research would be 4 months.  “It is a significant scope of work.  A realistic time frame to undertake this, and I’m putting this out there based on my own consulting experience, would be about four months” Wingrove told Council.  “Given the level of expertise required to undertake a contract of that length, I think you’re looking at something in the neighbourhood of $75,000 for the report.  You don’t know about these things for sure until you put them out on the street, but this is where I think we might land.”

Councilor Ian Chadwick said that he was prepared to see more complexity because there are so many things to be considered.  “I don’t think that this council could rightfully move ahead with this.  This is certainly the one item on this agenda that could be moved off into the new budget” Chadwick stated. “I think there is an area that would have to be looked at as well that isn’t even included that would cost more, of wider implication to the rest of the community, and through things like economic development, and again I don’t think this is something we have to talk about tonight.”  Chadwick said this would be something that a future council might want to go ahead with, saying that this could be the department that the money should come from.

Councilor Norm Sandberg said that he had asked that the municipal use of cell phones be considered as a part of the wifi study.  “I think it’s recognized that cell phones have higher RF emissions than wifi itself.  And if one is a concern, then the other must be a concern in my mind.  If we are looking at one I think it needs to be a comprehensive report and perhaps we go back to radios.”  Sandberg pointed out that there are many communication facilities in place on municipally owned buildings including the Collingwood Terminals.  “If we are truly going to address this, I think that we need to address it in a full, comprehensive manner.  If it is a health risk then we should, in my opinion anyway, consider eliminating wi-fi thoughout the community.  That would be facilitated by removing those communication devices from our municipally owned facilities.”

Councilor Sonny Foley wondered if the town needed to create its own report on the matter when the federal and provincial governments might be performing massive studies regarding this issue, adding that the town of Collingwood certainly wouldn’t have the resources that the government would have.  He was concerned that the local report would only duplicate the results of similar governmental investigations on the matter.  “If there is hardwire available in the library, and I say ‘if,’ that we rather than remove the wifi equipment that’s there that we ask the library to just turn it off until we get reports from higher levels of government .  This is something that is going to be studied very quickly I believe world-wide because it’s not just here in Canada and here in Collingwood that there are concerns about wife, it seems to be a universal concern.”

Councilor Dave Labelle said that many levels of government are looking into the issue and that he feels that as a council it should be stated that there is concern for the citizens.  “To get more information is as much as I’m willing to commit at this time.”

Deputy Mayor Sandra Cooper was concerned about the cost of $75,000 to conduct the study.  “I would like to put it on the shoulders of Health Canada and the cost.  There are so many implications if we were to shut it down now, and we have contracts in place on municipal facilities.  How will this impact the hospital or a neighbourhood if we were to shut it off.”