Holliston residents furious over ‘egregious’ SaskTel cell tower plans

A proposed new, 35-metre cell tower in a small Saskatoon park isn’t getting a “ringing” endorsement from locals, some of whom are calling it an “egregious, damaging and dangerous” addition to the neighbourhood.

A notice about the construction of the tower was sent to area residents in October 2024, and now the proposal is at the public consultation stage. A notice has been posted in the park as well.

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SaskTel’s Greg Jacobs said the tower is needed to improve coverage in the area as well as network capacity.

“In a densely populated, well-established, urban environment like the city of Saskatoon, it is very difficult to nearly impossible to find an area within the city that you would be 200 metres away from a residential area,” he said.

Residents react

That doesn’t sit well with Jason Kerr and his family, who live directly across the street from where the tower would be constructed.

“When the proposal was given to us in the first place… when we inquired with SaskTel about why is this happening, their message to us was ‘this will blend in.'”

SaskTel has posted a notice in Canon Smith Park, indicating a proposal to build a 35-metre cell tower (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

“And so, there was zero concern for the property owners, there was zero concern for what this would do to our homes, (no) concern for what that would do for people that enjoy that end of the park,” he said.

Danny and Judy Boyer agree, calling the proposal “a travesty” and “devastating.”

“They (SaskTel) are going to plant a cell tower across the street… from a house that’s 30 yards away. Now, no one on this earth would find that a pleasure to watch,” he said, adding the park is well-used by sports teams, dog walkers, families and others.

“I’ll park myself on that spot if they decide to dig a hole there, and they’ll have to arrest me before they’ll move me off that spot,” said Judy.

Both the Boyers and Kerr wonder why another location — even within the park further away from homes — wasn’t chosen.

“There’s 56 of these cell towers in commercial (areas) or near highways. There’s about four parks which are substantially larger than the Canon Smith Park,” said Danny.

City of Saskatoon’s response

Darryl Dawson, a manager with the planning and development department, said because the proposed tower is not on city-owned land, there’s not much they can do. He is hoping to work with SaskTel and the federal government, which gives the final approval.

“Requests to move the tower within the park is something administration will take back and discuss with SaskTel,” he said.

Jacobs said the property the tower would sit on is owned by SaskEnergy, which would lease it to SaskTel.

He also explained half a dozen sites were considered before the park site was chosen.

“This is really the only site that we’ve reviewed that would meet the needs… because this is a distance-sensitive technology, we need to construct a cell site in the area that we want to address coverage concerns,” he added.

But that reasoning is not good enough for Kerr and about 30 others who attended the public consultation at Holliston School.

“When we suggested other possible locations, every other possible location was no good. None of these things mattered because federal regulations allowed it to be in the spot that it is,” said Kerr.

Jacobs said nothing has been approved or finalized yet, but construction could take 12 to 18 months if and when that happens.