In the past year communities in the RM of Piney have been evacuated three times. Twice due to fire and once because of last weeks snow storm. Reeve Duane Boutang says that "the biggest issue is and always has been the lack of cell service". He adds that "when the hard lines go down, having cell service would make their lives a lot easier".

Reeve Duane Boutang is concerned because until the two levels of government can come to an agreement "it doesn't look like its going to get any better" in Piney.

During last weeks snow storm, a school bus filled with 22 children was stranded in the snow. The Reeve says "we don't know if there were any emergencies because they had no way of communicating". He believes that the tow truck service wouldn't attend to the isolated bus because they don't respond to areas with no reception.

On top of all the emergency situations where people need to communicate, the municipality of Piney has three border crossings. Reeve Duane Boutang says "there's a significant number of traffic that comes through our area, the province of Alberta only has six border crossings, so figure it out".

He says that cell service "is a basic necessity in this day and age", a necessity that people in Piney are currently living without.