A Cambridge man says the federal government threatened him with a $5,000 fine if he continued to broadcast the music accompanying his massive Christmas light show.
“Bah humbug,” David Baker wrote in a tweet directed at Kitchener South-Hespeler MP Marwan Tabbara and Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry. “My Christmas light display (over 20,000 lights timed to music) just got shut down.”
Tabarra responded with: “The light display itself is no problem. It can continue. The transmitter being used isn’t approved for use in Canada.”
Baker argued that a representative from the Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) tested his lights and they weren’t causing the interference.
In a statement, the federal department of ISED said that his transmitter runs on the same frequency of one which is licenced to NAVCan.
“Due to the potential risk to air safety at the Kitchener-Waterloo airport and to ensure the safety and security of airline passengers, we have asked the homeowner to stop using the non-certified transmitter,” the statement read while also noting that there have been complaints “from multiple aircrafts prior to landing at the Kitchener/Waterloo airport.”
He said in order to switch to a government-sanctioned frequency, “I basically would have to become a radio station and follow along with CRTC guidelines etc. Not what I was hoping to do with my light display.”