People will die this summer on the Sunshine Coast. Not all of them will die peacefully in their beds or from any number of risky behaviours, but they will die of ultimately preventable outcomes from common garden variety Canadian activities like hiking and fishing. Nobody will point a gun at them nor assail them with a switchblade. No-one will crash into rapids attached to a bungee cord, nor will it be likely that folks will be stricken at Egmont Days. But people, both locals and visitors, will succumb thanks to the irresponsible behaviour and treachery of government and corporate interests. Federal jurisdictions have played ‘hot potato’ with Telus for as long as Mr. Bell’s device has been in existence, but has any progress been made? In a word – no . . .
Egmont and large parts of the upper Sunshine Coast have never known the benefits of either cellular coverage or internet service faster than a government directive. Many folks feel that the existence of a connection to the outside world would have saved more than a few lives; case in point being the Search and Rescue folks who perished a few years ago. Their lives might not have been saved, but the odds of intervention in this and other tragedies would certainly have raised the odds of survival. People have had heart attacks on the world famous trail to Skookumchuck Rapids, and the only way to alert the first class Volunteer Fire Department was to have someone run out to the trailhead, then into the village and find someone who had a land line.
No-one is asking for anything more than what all Canadians expect; the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors without putting one’s self unnecessarily at risk. This is not back country hiking with a safety net, this is families coming up from the Lower Mainland to enjoy the splendor of the upper Sunshine Coast. Telus continues to play a childish ‘go slow’ strategy, whereby we are still without cellular service. My Canada does not ‘commodify’ social needs such as health and public safety. We simply do not fit into their business model; a business model, I might add, that precludes any other carriers from offering cellular and DSL internet in the region. It is one thing to turn their backs on us, but another to disallow any competition to operate these services. In most circles this is referred to as a monopoly or a restraint to free trade.
The foot dragging has gone on long enough. People will die this summer, and I for one will hold Telus and the federal government morally and ethically if not legally, responsible before the fact.
