LATE DISTRIBUTION FOR COUNCIL MAY 13, 1997 A5 ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT Date: May 7, 1997 Dept. File No. H411-1 CC File: 3253-2/2201 TO: Vancouver City Council FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services SUBJECT: FCM Grant Request for FCM Municipal Rights-of-Way Defense Fund RECOMMENDATION THAT Council approve the request of the FCM for a grant of $14,155 to contribute to a Municipal Rights-of-Way Fund from Contingency Reserve. (Requires 8 votes for approval) GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS The General Manager RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing. COUNCIL POLICY All grant requests must be approved by Council with a minimum of 8 votes. The action plan proposed by FCM is consistent with the Telecommunications Policy adopted by Council in July of 1996. PURPOSE The purpose of this report is to recommend that Vancouver participate in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities action plan on Telecommunications: Access to Municipal Rights-of-Way and to seek approval of a grant request from FCM to fund that action plan. BACKGROUND In 1993 the newly passed federal Telecommunications Act significantly changed the face of the telecommunications industry. Competition and deregulation has resulted in an increase in demand for access to municipal rights of way. Some municipalities, like Vancouver, antici- pated the effect of this change and have already adopted appropriate policies and are acting on those policies. Vancouver has been an active participant in the work of an FCM Sub-committee on Telecommunications since its inception in 1993. The work of this committee includes the development of suggested telecom- munications policies for member municipalities to adopt as well as a Model Access Agreement. The principals in the model agreement have been used as a basis for all Vancouver telecommunications agreements since its development, including those with Starcom and Metro Vancouver Fiber Services. Other agreements are currently in negotiation. The model agreement sets out the following five principals that address the concerns of municipalities: 1. The ability to control the number and type of above ground and underground telecommunications infrastructure; 2. Telecommunications companies will not impose additional financial burden on tax payers as a result of their use of the rights-of-way; 3. Municipal governments must not be responsible for the costs of relocating telecommunications infrastructure if required for municipal purposes; 4. Municipal governments must not be liable for any loss result- ing from damages arising from the actions of the munici- pal government; and 5. Municipal governments must receive revenues over and above direct expenditures to ensure full and adequate compen- sation from companies that use municipal property for profit. However, some Canadian municipalities have found that in dealing with these national and sometimes international telecommunications companies, there is much pressure to back down from these positions and a regional and even national municipal strategy has become imperative. Moreover, the CRTC has, up to now, chosen not to address the issues of compensa- tion for the use of municipal rights of way. We expect that there are now enough conflicts between the industry and Canadian municipalities that it is only a matter of time before these issues must be resolved either in front of the CRTC or in the Courts. ACTION PLAN FCM has drafted an action plan to deal with these issues and its essential steps are as follows: 1. Awareness and solidarity amongst member municipalities; 2. Fund raising to support the action plan; 3. Research on legal position and valuation principals; 4. Negotiations with Stentor, the CCTA and the Federal Govern- ment; and 5. Possible Hearings of the CRTC Stentor and the CCTA are organizations that represent the telephone companies and the cable companies respectively. GRANT REQUEST FCM member municipalities are being asked to contribute on the basis of $0.03 per capita to a municipal rights-of-way defense fund that will be dedicated to the issue of telecommunications and access to municipal rights-of-way. It will be used for research, legal and other costs regarding interventions before the CRTC. To date, Metropolitan Toronto, and the cities of London and Edmonton have committed funding. The cities participating in the Big Cities Mayors Caucus on Friday May 9, 1997 will be asked to commit funding before a general membership request goes out to all FCM members. CONCLUSION Vancouver staff is supportive of the FCM action plan and believe that working together through the FCM is the most effective and economical means to protect our fundamental rights respecting control of our rights-of-way and to recover the substantial costs imposed on us by telecommunications companies using those rights- of-way. * * * * *