You don’t need to be fluent in English to call 911, B.C. call takers say

The people who answer British Columbia’s emergency calls have a message — you don’t need to be fluent in English to call 911.

With a near-record level of immigration to B.C. last year, E-Comm 911 points out it is able to handle over 200 languages, but there are some very important tips to help it manage calls needing translation services quickly.

“At E-Comm, we absolutely understand when people are calling 911, they are having emergencies, they are having terrible days, they are stressed out,” Jay Mander, a Vancouver Police Department dispatcher and 9-1-1 police call taker for E-Com, said.

“What we want people to remember is that you don’t need to be fluent in English to call 911. We have translation services available.”

Mander says, in his experience, when someone calls the service they will usually just say the language that they speak — for example Mandarin, Cantonese, or Punjabi — but he encourages anyone with non-English speaking family or friends to teach them a handful of key words.

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“Police, fire, or ambulance in English, the city that they are calling from, their address, and then the language that they speak. And then we will bring on a translator.”

This will allow the 911 operator to start the response to the call as quickly as possible, direct the emergency to the proper agency, and then get assistance from a specially trained translator.

“In 2021, there were 3,418 calls to 911 in B.C. that required translation, which is a 105 per cent increase from 2020, and those people needed translation in 42 different languages,” Mander told CityNews. “The most popular was Mandarin at 31 per cent and then Punjabi at 27 per cent.”

E-Comm’s translation services are provided by a third-party organization called Language Line, which operates call centres across North America and internationally.

“Their service standard is to bring on a translator in under a minute. I personally have never experienced a delay,” says Mander. “A translator usually connects instantly. They have translators on standby, ready to answer calls.”

However, E-Comm — which handles 99 per cent of the province’s 911 calls — encourages people not to be shy to try their English.

“Even a little English can be very helpful, and often all our call takers need to locate you and send help in an emergency.”

It also asks people to explain to friends or family who are not fluent the importance of calling 911 immediately in an emergency situation, rather than waiting for an English-speaking friend or neighbour to call on their behalf.

– With files from Sonia Aslam