The Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) – which is working with partners to improve cell phone service in Haliburton County – says it has “a very aggressive plan” to finish the project – that will see 29 new towers, 21 upgrades, and four co-locations – by mid-2026.
CEO Jason St-Pierre updated County councillors on the $300 million project, funded by Rogers, the Ontario and federal governments, and the Eastern Ontario wardens and mayors’ caucuses, including the County of Haliburton, last week.
St-Pierre said six of 29 new cell towers are now in service in Haliburton County, all 21 upgrades complete, and three of four co-locations done. He said, overall, 56 per cent of Haliburton County sites are completed.
“We are seeing progress; not the progress I would like to come to the County council with to share at this point, but we are seeing some positive progress throughout the project,” St-Pierre said.
EORN and its partners have just completed year four, and are entering year five of the project.
St-Pierre said they had “a very aggressive plan” for year five. They have one co-location in Algonquin Highlands in 2025, followed by three new sites in AH in 2026; six in Highlands East in 2026; six in Minden Hills in 2026, two in Dysart et al in 2025 and six in 2016.
“The challenge is that most of the new sites now, we have slated into 2026. The reason for this is we’ve had a challenge trying to find suitable locations to be able to host towers which meet the network requirements and also met our TPA (thirdparty administrator) agreements and our number of other agreements around private property availability and items like that,” St-Pierre said.
However, he said that overall, on the land use agreements (LUA), they are making “fairly good progress. We only have five sites left to secure in Haliburton County; two of those are going through the LUA process, waiting for sign off, and three that are still a little bit further …” However, he said they are targeting to get them finished by the end of June.
“It’s a bit of an ambitious target but we are pushing hard to try to get those finished so that we are in a position to have these towers up and running by the end of July 2026.”
As for how the new and improved towers are working, St-Pierre said, “we are making really good progress in our objectives of hitting that 85 per cent target for high-definition coverage. We should be able to exceed those targets in this project.”
Closing out the project is not without challenges, he noted.
“The areas we are into are really the tough ones. We’re seeing a little bit more opposition, a little bit more clarity is required, and there’s a lot of time now being spent on educating and discussing where the footprints are, why they’re going to be there, and ensuring that people are really understanding why this project is going forward.”
Coun. Cec Ryall said even after the EORN cell gap project is complete, he anticipates some areas still won’t get the level of coverage they want, and asked if other, local providers, might be able to fill the gaps. St-Pierre said yes. County council received the EORN delegation as information only.
EORN at Minden Hills
EORN communications director, Lisa Severson, and director of technology for the project, Paula Preston, were at Minden Hills council May 13.
They noted they still do not have concurrence for three sites in Minden Hills; Brady Lake, Gelert and Bobcaygeon Road.
They said their original site at Brady Lake was dropped due to pressure from neighbours in July 2024. However, a new site has been identified and the pre-consultation process started.
They said the original Gelert site was dropped due to multiple challenges, although pre-consultation has now started.
On Bobcaygeon Road, they said the consultation was completed with “many objections but appears no relevant concerns. Ready to go to council for concurrence approval.”
Severson said, “our construction needs to be completed through the program by August 2026, just a little over a year left to get the remaining sites built. If sites are not approved at these locations, EORN will run out of time and they will not be built, resulting in coverage and capacity gaps.”
Coun. Shirley Johannessen said last week, “many of my residents are concerned about the views being increasingly dominated by cell towers.” She added her constituents think the public consultation process has been approached as ‘a formality only’ by Rogers, with concerns not being taken seriously. She also questioned site selection, suggesting there could be more co-locations.
Severson said TSPs work with municipal planning staff on site location. She added they are doing some co-locations, but towers might not have the space or ability to hold the weight. “We really did encourage as much of that in the project. We want to mitigate visual impact of the infrastructure we’re putting in.”
Coun. Ivan Ingram said residents, particularly near the proposed Bobcaygeon Road tower, had expressed health concerns. He asked about studies and information on effects. Severson said they are bound to abide by Safety Code 6 that the federal government has set. “They do testing etc.; they have advised that cell towers are safe.”
Mayor Bob Carter said, “I think this project is a really important project because this area and a lot of Eastern Ontario have been ignored for far too long. Rural communities can’t compete because of the lack of communication.”
