B.C. investing in upgrades to 911 services

The B.C. government is making a multi-million dollar investment into 911 services in the province.

The $150 million announced Wednesday will fund the upgrades to accommodate Next Generation 911 – an upgraded service that is slowly being implemented nationwide. In 2021, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) laid out a road map that will see every region in the country transition to the service by 2025.

The upgraded service will allow people to text 911 and send pictures and videos. It will also have better location tracking abilities, and people will be able to remain anonymous when they call.

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B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth. says the injection of funding will help the province meet the deadlines imposed by the CRTC.

“When people are faced with a life-threatening emergency situation, when they or their loved ones are frightened or hurting, they count on an accessible and reliable 911 system that connects them to the help they urgently need,” Farnworth said.

Most of the money will go toward E-Comm, which is the province’s primary emergency call-taker. The agency will get $90 million, while the Union of BC Municipalities will get $60 million to help offset costs, as local governments are responsible for their own emergency call-taking services.

Money won’t directly help E-Comm staffing challenges: President 

Oliver Grüter-Andrew, the president of E-Comm, says the service is under increasing pressure and received over 2.1 million emergency calls in B.C. last year alone.

“Populations are growing, there are aging demographics, there is the adoption of cell phones and smart devices, and an increase in climate emergencies to name a few of the pressures,” he said.

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Emergency services in B.C. have been under the microscope over the past couple of years. During the heat dome in 2021, E-Comm was inundated with calls, leading to long response times for paramedics arriving.

Additionally, E-Comm and the union representing emergency call-takers have been vocal about staffing challenges. While the provincial investment will not directly go toward addressing those challenges, Grüter-Andrew says it will help ease the load for staff.

“This money is there to build a fundamental technology change that will however allow us to simplify a number of the processes and to bring greater content to first responders when they’re on the road,” he said, adding there are initiatives at the local levels working on human resources issues.

Grüter-Andrew adds that this is the first time that E-Comm, which takes 99 per cent of all emergency calls in B.C., has received a direct investment from the province.