QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Emergency Management and Community Resilience
Emergency Alerting Systems
October 7, 2026
Welcome to the Senate, minister.
Just a few weeks ago, six provinces experienced disruptions to 9-1-1 services following issues with Bell Canada’s next-generation 9-1-1 network. I understand the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, is responsible for regulating telecommunications networks, including 9-1-1 services, and for reviewing network outages.
What role do you play in ensuring that Canadians can reliably and promptly access emergency services through 9-1-1 when they need them most?
Senator, with respect to 9-1-1 services, that is an aspect that our department is considering at this present time.
I don’t have up-to-date information on that. If it’s all right with you, I can respond to you in writing.
Thank you for that, minister. I look forward to your written response.
As a follow-up, in Budget 2025, your government proposed investing $55 million to support a new National Public Alerting System. Will that new system rely on networks such as Bell’s next-generation 9-1-1 infrastructure? If so, what measures are being put in place to ensure that outages like the one experienced last month do not compromise a national emergency communications system?
Senator, at this point in time, I cannot tell you the exact technical nature of the system that will be put in place. What I can tell is that, as I indicated earlier, we’re looking to modernize that system, which is out of date. I know my officials are in the process of reviewing what exactly that system should look like to ensure it’s the most beneficial and the most helpful to Canadians from coast to coast to coast. This is very important.
