When you call 911 this fall, the first person you speak to will be based in the Lower Mainland, not in Prince George.
The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is not renewing its contract for call-answer services with the RCMP, instead signing on with E-Comm - an emergency communications centre located in Vancouver.
In addition to all municipalities and electoral areas within its boundaries, the RDFFG also provides 911 services to the Cariboo Regional District, the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako and most areas of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine.
Currently, all 911 calls come into a Public Safety Answering Point in the RCMP's North District operational communications centre. A call-taker determines the nature of the emergency and transfers the call to the appropriate response agency - fire, police or ambulance.
Fire calls are dispatched to the fire operations communication centre in Prince George's Firehall No. 1 and paramedics are dispatched through a Kamloops location. Calls for police are transferred to other dispatchers within the North District centre.
In switching to E-Comm, which already handles about 90,000 911 calls annually for southwest B.C. municipalities and regional districts, those calls will still be dispatched the same way.
"We are pleased to be able to provide more cost-effective 911 call answer services without compromising the reliability of the 911 system that residents in our region have trusted," said RDFFG board chair Art Kaehn, in a press release.
The switch is expected to save the regional district nearly half of its annual $730,000 expense on 911 call answer services through cost sharing among the increased amount of communities already served by E-Comm.
Last year, 71,000 calls were received in the boundaries of the regional district's 911 service - 28,209 from inside the RDFFG.
The details of the switch are still in the early stages, but there aren't expected to be job losses at the RCMP public answering safety point, said civilian member Chris Spence. Instead, the six 911 call go-between jobs will be phased out through attrition.
