Many parts of Durham Region, including parts of the municipality of Clarington, experience limited, unreliable or non-existent cellular phone service, which negatively impacts public safety and emergency responses, consumer protection, and our local economy of small businesses.

Durham Region needs action from all three levels of government now, as well as proactive measures to ensure similar connectivity challenges don’t arise with the development of new technologies.

We, the undersigned, call upon the Government of Canada to take the following actions:

• The Ministers of Justice and Public Safety (“the Ministers”) must consider cellular service as part of their shared mandate to keep Canadians safe and develop a metric for identifying communities at risk of being unable to contact police, fire, ambulance, or other emergency services. Where such communities are identified, the Ministers should collaborate with the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) to expedite and support cellular tower construction and other relevant infrastructure and technologies, in partnership with local municipalities and law enforcement agencies.
  
  
• The Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry should require, as a condition of granting licenses to construct and operate cellular towers, a duty for private sector wireless service providers to actively consult with local and regional governments to anticipate urban planning and population growth trends.

• The Minister of Heritage must work to update the consumer rights contained in the Wireless Code to empower consumers to challenge wireless service contracts that do not recognize limited, unreliable, or non-existent cellular service within a region or municipality and offer corresponding discounts to fees and service charges.

• The Minister of Small Business should develop a strategy to support the competitiveness of small businesses operating in local economies with limited, unreliable, or non-existent cellular phone service. This strategy should address connectivity and communications between small businesses and their customers and clients.