Rural Internet Installation

1. Application is submitted to Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC).
2. Receipt of Application is acknowledged.
3. Application is circulated for agency comments – for this application, Halton Region, Halton Conservation, the City of Burlington, and the Bruce Trail Conservancy were circulated for comment.
   

   We (NEC) circulate to all agencies that are deemed to have an interest in a proposal so that we can carry out a coordinated review. One of the reasons this is important is that it prevents subsequent changes that would require additional approval by the NEC. The coordinated review process ensures that whatever development is approved by the NEC, it is not likely to require subsequent changes by other approval agencies.

   Agencies have one month to respond. Revisions may be necessary to respond to agency comments, and subsequent review of revisions takes time to complete. This is the current stage the Development Permit Application process is at. We note that the agencies have been working directly with the applicant to assist them in addressing their comments. At this time, we are awaiting additional information from the applicant. This includes information to satisfy both Halton Region and Conservation Halton.
   
   

4. Planning Report is prepared. Recommendation is made for conditions of approval, or reasons for refusal.
5. All decisions are then subject to a 14-day appeal period.

A “Notice of Decision” is mailed to Applicant/Owner, adjacent landowners (within 120 metres), interested parties and circulated agencies. If the decision is not appealed, the decision is confirmed. If a decision is appealed, a hearing is scheduled by the Ontario Land Tribunal.

The Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act subsection 24(3) prohibits the issuance of any other permission or approval under any other Act or by-law until a development permit has been issued by the NEC (unless exempt).

B) Once the NEC Permit has been issued, the Conservation Halton (CH) permit will be issued, subject to receipt of a complete application.

C) Once the City receives the NEC permit, CH permit, any Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) or insurance forms that have expired, all applicable fees and a construction schedule from the IAS, the City’s MC can be issued along with the Road Occupancy and Load Exemption Permits. This would generally take approximately five days to complete but will be dependent on how quickly IAS signs and returns the permit back to the City.

1. Niagara Escarpment Commission Development Permit
   See response to question 1.
2. Conservation Halton Permit
   A CH permit application has not been received for this project; however, CH is reviewing all information submitted through the NEC Development Permit review process. A CH permit can be issued once an NEC permit has been issued. A CH permit will be issued upon receipt of a complete application from the applicant.
3. Halton Region Municipal Consent and Excavation or Occupancy Permits
   See response to question 1.
4. City of Burlington Municipal Consent, Road Occupancy and Load Exemption Permits
   

   The City of Burlington Municipal Consent (MC) permit reached approximately 90 per cent complete on Nov. 14, 2021. In order to bring the permit to 100 per cent and therefore be in a position to issue the MC, the City requires a NEC permit, CH permit, any WSIB or insurance forms that have expired, all applicable fees and a construction schedule from the contractor. The Road Occupancy and Load Exemption Permits will be issued in conjunction with the MC when the outstanding information is provided.

Refer to Question 1.

The purpose of the Niagara Escarpment Plan is to provide for the maintenance of the Niagara Escarpment and land in its vicinity substantially as a continuous natural environment, and to ensure that only such development occurs as is compatible with that natural environment. As a provincial land use plan, protection of the Niagara Escarpment is a provincial priority, and all development with the potential to negatively impact the Escarpment must be reviewed by the NEC, an agency of the provincial government. Although some development does not require a development permit from the NEC, there is no exemption for new infrastructure in this area and therefore a Development Permit is required.   

The amount of time it takes to process this application will depend on how quickly the applicant provides the additional information that was requested in November 2021, and how quickly the NEC’s partner agencies, specifically Halton Region and Conservation Halton can review the information and confirm they are satisfied. Given these external factors, it is not possible for agencies to provide a timeframe. However, all agencies recognize the importance of the project given the number of people affected, and it is a high priority to move forward as quickly as possible.

For additional details on the current permit status refer to Question 1.

When the project got underway in 2021, there was an effort for the agencies to communicate with each other and coordinate the review. The agencies have been keeping each other in the loop for the various processes and have been working together with IASL’s consultant to coordinate approvals.

There is an opportunity going forward for all agencies including the City to meet weekly with IAS to ensure they are aware of outstanding requirements and to share timing expectations to ensure they are aligning to keep the project on track.

When undertaking work within the municipal right of way, individuals and contractors must do their due diligence to protect municipal assets, including trees. The completion of an arborist report and preservation plan is a proactive measure which details how work is to be conducted so as to not cause unnecessary injuries or destruction of the City's green infrastructure. Given the scope and scale of the work, the City negotiated with the applicant to have an arborist on site to support the works around trees in lieu of this document package submission ahead of time. Any on-site changes can be done immediately with the arborist without having to stop work to discuss with others not on site. City staff cannot comment on the Niagara Escarpment Commission legislative authority. Questions concerning the commissions authority and requirements under their Act are best directed to the NEC for a response.

Although the City trees are catalogued, as per the City’s Public Tree bylaw an arborist and tree preservation plan is required by a certified arborist for the trees impacted by construction. In this particular instance, due to the scale and timelines provided, the City worked with the applicant to provide an alternative option for review for this file, which was to have a full-time arborist on site during constructions works in the absence of an arborist report and tree preservation. The applicant chose this option. The project arborist assigned is meant to support the contractor with any construction related impacts to trees.

Standard Broadband will be providing their own proprietary version of fibre internet. Specific details can be found at StandardBroadband.ca.

The City of Burlington is fully supportive of utility companies that plan to install high-speed internet in underserviced areas of north Burlington. While the City may encourage communications utilities to provide coverage for all areas, it is ultimately the decision of the independent utility companies which areas they wish to provide coverage. Requests from residents to obtain high-speed are best directed to the independent communication utility companies such as Standard Broadband, Bell, Cogeco.

There are two separate processes undertaken when a new utility provider wishes to install infrastructure in the City’s right of way for the first time.

1. Municipal Access Agreement (MAA)
2. Municipal Consent permit (MC)

A Special Council meeting was held in August 2021 to give permission to staff to enter into a Municipal Access Agreement with IAS. In anticipation of council’s approval, staff began reviewing drawings submitted by IAS for a MC permit. Both a fully executed MAA and MC are required before construction can commence.

A 60-day Engineering delay is not an accurate statement. Engineering staff circulated 219 drawings to various internal stakeholders and completed their review within 27 days. It took IAS 54 days to address missing information on the initial set of drawings and decide on either Option 1,complete an arborist report and tree preservation plan or Option 2, retain the services of a certified arborist to oversee construction activity as an alternative. IAS chose Option 2. This is a requirement tied to the Public Tree Bylaw.

City Engineering staff remain the first point of contact for the MC permit requirements and have been working with Tom of IASL and Frank (Roehampton Cable) since May 2021. They have been coordinating with internal staff and with Frank on the best ways to streamline process requirements.

Larissa Howe, Manager of Customer Experience, Business Development became involved in October 2021 when IAS was approaching a deadline and in need of assistance to meet their timelines. Larissa has assisted Tom with connecting him to internal staff who are working with his contractor Frank on fulfilling requirements.

Weekly meetings were set up with Larissa, Tom and Engineering staff to discuss outstanding City requirements, ask questions and to check on high level progress with external agencies.

Through outreach with external agencies including the NEC it was confirmed that each of the agencies were working together on ways to align and help streamline the processes that they own.

NEC permits generally do not require development permits for individual lateral service connections (connecting to the home).

A CH permit may be required for connection in some instances. However, that would only be in cases where the connection crosses a regulated feature (e.g., valley or watercourse). If the connection line between the road allowance and the residents’ dwelling crosses through CH’s regulated area, CH should be contacted to see if approval is required. When permits are required, they will be considered minor and we are looking at options of when permits can be ‘batched together’ or potentially avoided. Residents can initiate this process now, by visiting CH’s online mapping to determine whether there is regulated area on their properties between their dwelling and road allowance:

https://conservationhalton-camaps.opendata.arcgis.com/pages/web-maps

The City is always evolving and learning in order to implement process improvements. This project like all projects will have a debrief to discuss lessons learned and ways of improvement moving forward.

See response to Question 1 for where IAS is in the process.

No, the Special Council meeting held in August 2021 gave permission from Council to staff to enter into a Municipal Access Agreement (MAA) with IAS. This is a process all new utility service providers must go through. For this project to begin, IAS needs both a MAA and a Municipal Consent permit from the City. The MAA is legal agreement to allow utility owners to occupy public lands without the City inheriting liability. It is an ongoing agreement between the City and utility provider whereas the MC permit is permission granted for a specific project that has a defined project limit as well as a start and end date.

The applicant could submit different applications for different areas to separate approvals for different areas; however, this would not necessarily prevent an objection to the project as a whole. If the applicant wishes to take this approach, they should contact us first to discuss.

Bell’s proposed work area is various locations along the Cedar Springs Road corridor and Guelph Line corridor and include the following roads;

• Cedar Springs Road
• Highview Drive
• Watson Drive
• Highpoint Court
• No. 1 Side Road
• No. 2 Side Road
• Medad Springs Court
• Colling Road
• Blind Line
• Britannia Road
• Willowgrove Trail
• Harvest Moon Lane
• Guelph Line
• Homestead Drive
• Escarpment Drive
• Bluffs Way
• Mount Nemo Crescent
• No. 8 Side Road

Not all properties on the roads listed may be serviced by Bell’s installation. While the City may encourage communications utilities to provide coverage for all areas, it is ultimately the decision of the independent utility companies which areas they wish to provide coverage. Requests from residents to obtain high-speed internet are best directed to the independent communication utility companies.

The NEC takes a “one window” approach to permit application review. This coordinated approach ensures all agencies’ policies are considered in a coordinated manner. As the highest planning approval authority in this NEP Area, the NEC takes the lead role in circulating development permit applications.

The amount of time it takes to process the application will depend on how quickly the applicant provides the additional information that was requested in November 2021, and how quickly the NEC’s partner agencies can review the information and confirm they are satisfied. Given these external factors, it is not possible for the NEC to provide a timeframe. However, the NEC recognizes the importance of the project given the number of people affected, and it is a high priority for the NEC to move forward as quickly as possible.

The primary justification in splitting the three original drawings into 14 smaller packages was to allow the applicant to begin as soon as possible. In particular, Municipal Consent packages one to six were determined to have the least amount of conflict with Conservation Halton, Niagara Escarpment Commission and Halton Region projects and should be started first. This plan to split the project from three to 14 packages was carried out with the consultation and approval of Standard Broadband. The applicant ultimately submitted a single application to the Niagara Escarpment Commission which encompassed all 14 areas. As a result, all 14 Municipal Consent applications are contingent on the approval of the singular Niagara Escarpment Commission permit.

According to Bell, there is no fibre on the pole as of today. This area is a part of the planned Bell upgrade within this project.

The City of Burlington is fully supportive of utility companies that plan to install high-speed internet in underserviced areas of north Burlington. While the City may encourage communications utilities to provide coverage for all areas, it is ultimately the decision of the independent utility companies which areas they choose to provide coverage. Requests from residents to obtain high-speed are best directed to the independent communication utility companies such as Standard Broadband, Bell, Cogeco.

Refer to Question 28.

Bell has obtained an approved permit from the Niagara Escarpment Commission. Once the City obtains an arborist report from Bell, the Municipal Consent permit can be issued. Work can be expected to begin shortly thereafter.

As mentioned in the Town Hall, the City commenced with detailed drawing review in advance of receiving a complete Municipal Consent application package and had this review completed last year. As we wait to receive the outstanding items from IAS, any work that can be done in advance is being worked on. This includes drafting up conditions of the permit and working with our Transportation Services staff on requirements for a road occupancy permit.

All applicants for construction projects that may impact city trees are required to provide a tree preservation plan and arborist submission. However, early in this process the City waived that requirement to save the applicant time. The City worked on a plan agreed to by IASL/Standard Broadband to have an arborist visit the site as required as construction begins on various legs of the projects. They have the option to hire their own arborist for this work or use the City’s third-party contractor, which the City has secured at a preferred rate.

In September 2018, the City of Burlington provided comments for an application to the Niagara Escarpment Commission for a utility company to install a telecommunications tower at 2433 No. 2 Side Road. According to Bell, the NEC application is currently within the review/analysis phase and recent revisions were made to the proposal as a part of that review. Questions regarding the status of that proposal should be directed to Bell.

• The City has received two separate Municipal Consent Permit applications

IAS Webpage

• A funding extension has been requested and conditionally approved to July 2022.
• After pre-consultation with IASL, the City has received a complete application submission as of Nov. 4, 2021.
• Over this whole process, the City was proactively reviewing plans and drawings in parallel to minimize future revisions
• The City has been assisting the internet providers with other external agencies (Halton Region, Conservation Halton and the Niagara Escarpment Commission) to coordinate and expedite the processing of permits to be issued to allow this work to proceed*
• Following receipt of Conservation Halton and Niagara Escarpment Commission permits, the City is expecting to be in a position to issue Municipal Consent permits early in 2022
• Work will start in the spring with a tentative completion date of July
• City staff have been working with IASL to meet their timelines

*Niagara Escarpment Commission policies do not apply to all areas of the project.

The Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) is mandated to develop, interpret and apply Niagara Escarpment Plan policies that maintain and enhance the vitality of the Escarpment’s unique environmental and landscape features. Its decisions are made independently, impartially, and according to a risk management framework.

The NEC issues permits for development and circulates to the City of Burlington for review and comments.

For more information visit the Niagara Escarpment Commission - Applying for a development permit application page.

Permission from Conservation Halton (CH) is required to develop in areas of natural hazards including river or stream valleys, wetlands, shorelines or hazardous lands; alter a river, creek, stream or watercourse; or interfere with a wetland. If it can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of CH that the development, alteration or interference will not affect the control of flooding, erosion, dynamic beaches, pollution or the conservation of land, CH may grant permission.

For more information, visit Conservation Halton.

• Bell Canada portion is scheduled to be determined
• IAS portion is anticipated to be complete July 2022

Yes, both sides of every road is included in the project.