Inadequate 9-1-1 services could cost lives

OTTAWA – Today’s poll results should serve as a wake-up call to the government that action is urgently required on regulating wireless 9-1-1 services, in order to protect public safety, according to New Democrat MPs. The poll also points to a high-level of dissatisfaction with the level of deregulation for cell phone companies.

“When tragedy strikes Canadians need to know they have an emergency system they can rely on,” says New Democrat Public Safety Critic Don Davies. “The government must take immediate action to set national mobile 911 standards to protect Canadians and our visitors, particularly with the Olympics coming to Canada in 2010.”

Today’s poll builds on a report made public two-weeks ago outlining vulnerabilities in Canadian wireless 9-1-1 services, deficiencies that are putting Canadians’ safety at risk. As Davies points out, “Canadians who make an emergency 911 call from a cell phone and are unable to provide an address shouldn’t assume that police or ambulance dispatchers will be able to electronically pinpoint their location.”

“In the U.S., if you are too ill to speak or lost or trapped somewhere, the authorities can zero in on the precise location you are calling from on your cell phone,” said New Democrat Industry Critic Brian Masse. “Not in Canada. Our government so far has failed to take action and is placing lives at risk.”

The E.U. and the U.S. have been proactive in requiring mobile 911 services that can locate callers. The lack of accuracy standards and information requirements in the CRTC policy on wireless 911 calls impedes effective location–based emergency dispatch service. Even when the CRTC completes Phase II of its wireless 9-1-1 service enhancements, we will still lag far behind the U.S. on important functions like improved accuracy requirements, access to services while roaming, and finding the location of people using “pre-paid” handsets.

“This is becoming increasingly important because there are now more wireless subscribers in Canada - 21 million - than there are landlines,” explained New Democrat Digital Issues Critic Charlie Angus. “And more than half of all 911 calls in Canada now come from cell phones.”