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First steps toward 911 start this month
Hiring to begin within six weeks for estimated 2019 rollout across all 33 communities

Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 12, 2017

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers won't be able to dial 911 until winter 2019, but the first steps toward getting the service will start within the next six weeks.

NNSL photograph

Municipal services committee received an update on the 911 plans on Monday from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA).

"It's exciting to see the progress after all these years," said Mayor Mark Heyck.

Deputy minister Eleanor Young told council her department's 2015 study on the issue indicated that Yellowknife would be the best location for the call centre to handle routing emergency calls. Currently, the only call centre in the NWT is located in Yellowknife.

Opened in 2015, it currently dispatches emergency services, fire and municipal enforcement 24/7, employing five dispatchers and one supervisor on a rotating basis.

The new centre would need 12 full-time staff as well as renovations, with a price tag of approximately $1 million.

"We hope to have staff on-board within the next month to six weeks, ideally, so that they can start working on this right away," said Young. She estimates that it will take about 18 months to get the legislation and work with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in line for the service.

Young added that this month, MACA plans to begin communication projects, including a website, to keep the public informed, while the project manager to guide the implementation would be hired or assigned next month. Renovations to the existing call centre and hiring the rest of the staff needed would begin in the fall, and carry on until fall 2018.

She said that by winter of next year, Northwestel is expected to complete the service fee application to the CRTC to cover the cost of the service - while not a revenue stream for Northwestel, Young said telecoms work closely with the CRTC to set up fee structure to cover the cost of 911 services, which are collected as a fee on phone bills.

By 2019, the service would be ready to roll out in all 33 communities.

"We would be going live with everyone at once," said Young. 'If we only have it in some communities and not in others ... we're going to have the same kinds of concerns that were raised last year about people not knowing which number to call if there is an emergency."

She also raised concerns about the fact not all communities have consistent address systems in place.

"The blue house down the road is usually known to everybody in town, but for someone at a call centre, that might be a different story," said Young.

"Enhanced street addressing in all 33 communities prior to implementation will likely not occur, giving the challenges we would face in accomplishing that task ... But we would make a best effort to get what we could done prior to implementation and then continue with that effort after implementation has started."

The system that launches would also be basic 911, which can be implemented now by Northwestel with no significant technology changes.

The next level up -enhanced 911 - includes providing location information via GPS networks but would involve significant costs, according to MACA. It's also expected to be obsolete very soon, subsumed by "next generation 911," which allows for text, images and video service.

Next generation 911 is currently being examined by the CRTC, but Young estimates it could be years before the service is available in the NWT.

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