Program Design Selected for the Northwest Territories 9-1-1 Service
YELLOWKNIFE (February 5, 2018) – The Honourable Caroline Cochrane, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA), and the Honourable Glen Abernethy, Minister of Health and Social Services (HSS), today announced a key decision in the program design for the Northwest Territories’ (NWT) new 9-1-1 service: an in-house Primary Public Safety Answering Point will be established, co-located with the existing HSS Med-Response program.
Since May 2017, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) has been working with key stakeholders to validate previous planning assumptions, including a final operating model.
This 9-1-1 model includes pre-arrival over-the-phone health care instruction and a single call point for access to existing emergency services. The advantages of co-location for the NWT 9-1-1 and Med-Response programs include the ability to share systems, space, and training costs. Long-term, future integration with other GNWT emergency programming such as the NWT Public Alerting System will also be explored.
NWT 9-1-1 will go live in the summer of 2019.
Quotes
“An in-house call centre co-located with Med-Response truly represents a ‘made in the north’ design which recognizes the NWT’s unique operating environment. All thirty-three of our communities will benefit from this approach.”
– Caroline Cochrane, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs
“In 2015, the Northwest Territories broke new ground in Canada by combining air ambulance dispatch and clinical consultation into a single centre. By co-locating the 9-1-1 and Med-Response programs, we are able to continue making efficiencies in service delivery to both health care practitioners and the public”.
– Glen Abernethy, Minister of Health and Social Services
Key Facts
- A Public Safety Answering Point is a call centre responsible for answering calls to an emergency telephone number for police, firefighters, ambulance and other emergency services.
- Nine-one-one (9-1-1) is a three-digit telephone number you will be able to call in an emergency. Calling 9-1-1 will connect you to a trained emergency dispatcher in a call centre right here in the NWT. The emergency dispatcher will connect you to the emergency services already available in your community.
- Launched in February 2015, Med-Response gives health care practitioners across the NWT improved and timely access to air ambulance services and clinical support.
- 9-1-1 will be implemented simultaneously in all 33 communities by summer 2019.
- NWT telephone and cell phone users (including Internet-based telephone users) will be charged a small nominal monthly fee that will appear on their phone bill. User fees for 9-1-1 are charged throughout Canada and internationally. No fees will be charged in the NWT until the service is being provided.
- 9-1-1 will be available in all NWT official languages through the use of interpreters.
Related Links
Media Contacts
Jay Boast
Communications Planning Specialist
Municipal and Community Affairs
Government of the Northwest Territories
Phone: 867-767-9162 Ext. 21044
NT5
