Portage la Prairie City Council observed a presentation by City of Brandon Director of Public Safety Communications Robert Stewart concerning 911 calls and Portage-specific statistics. The Brandon office provides the 911 service for the community and answers all calls made to 911 by residents. The director noted they also handle call assessments and dispatching for the Portage Fire Department.
Stewart emphasized that one key focus for the 911 centre is understanding that callers may be experiencing the worst day of their lives.
"At the very best, they are having a really bad day. I mean, you don't call 911 when you're looking for flowers. We also handle some emergency communication tasks, such as supporting tactical operations during large-scale incidents. But generally, we provide 911 call answering and fire call assessments and dispatching for Portage."
He explained that in the first seven months of this year, there were 6,415 911 calls from Portage la Prairie, with a total phone time of 3 hours, 35 minutes, and 32 seconds.
"Police, fire, and ambulance are always considered the three emergency agencies for public safety, but 911 really needs to be considered the fourth agency. We're not part of any of the other three; we're our own separate entity. When someone calls 911, like for police in Portage la Prairie, for example, my staff takes 20 to 30 seconds to determine what's happening and which primary responding agency is needed."
Stewart said if the call is for the RCMP, it’s transferred to them, and the same process applies to ambulance calls.
"After the initial questioning, if we believe it’s primarily a medical issue, we transfer the call to the Ambulance Dispatch Centre, which is in Brandon and run by Shared Health. If the call is for the fire department, my staff keeps it because we handle fire-call assessments and dispatching for Portage la Prairie. From a statistics perspective, about 42 per cent of the calls we receive from Portage la Prairie are transferred to police, 22 per cent are transferred to the ambulance service, and 20 per cent are fire department calls. The remaining 16 per cent are nuisance calls, including non-emergencies."
He noted these nuisance calls often involve people hanging up before the call is answered or calling for non-emergency information.
Stewart added that City Council’s only real question was whether other agencies keep police calls. He explained Brandon’s centre keeps fire calls because they dispatch for the fire department.
"There are some examples of other setups. The RCMP doesn’t take 911 calls directly; we do, and we transfer them. But in some places, like Ontario, 911 centres are also police dispatch centres. In those cases, ambulance and fire calls are transferred out, but the police calls stay in-house. In Winnipeg, 911 is part of their police service, so they keep police calls but transfer out fire and ambulance calls. In British Columbia, E-Comm is multi-agency, keeping most of the fire and police calls but transferring ambulance calls."
He explained that how 911 centres operate depends on the contracts and services they dispatch for.
Stewart also emphasized that 911 is separate from police, fire, and ambulance services.
"911 isn't just a three-digit phone number to connect to police, fire, and ambulance. There's more to it. For over 20 years, 911 has used both a voice network, like your landline phone, and a data network. The data network provides automatic number and location information — much more detailed than regular call display."
Stewart explained that when calling 911 from a landline, they see the subscriber information, address, and location of the phone. For cell phones, it works differently.
"We get a triangulated location based on cell towers. While it’s not as precise as GPS, we get a good idea of where you are. We also get your name and number in much more detail than regular call display."
However, he noted they don’t receive GPS coordinates from cell phones; instead, it relies on triangulation.
"Within the next year, we’re moving to Next Generation 911 (NG-911), which will use Internet Protocol-based (IP) locations for better accuracy, especially in rural areas. If we don't know where you are, we can't send help. Location is the most critical factor in a 911 call."
Stewart explained that triangulation, first introduced in 2009, wasn’t initially very accurate, but it has improved significantly over the years.
"Nowadays, we get higher-confidence ratings and shorter diameters. Accuracy improves with more cell towers, but in rural Manitoba, with fewer towers, it can still be challenging. The new IP-based system will improve accuracy in these areas."
He added that this location information comes through instantly.
"It’s available as soon as we answer the call. That's why the data network attached to 911 is so important. We push for 911 access across Manitoba because many areas, especially up north, don’t have it, which makes it harder for us to find people in emergencies."
When asked if cell coverage impacts 911, Stewart explained that cell coverage is a business, and 911 is reliant on the companies that provide the towers.
"Cell coverage does affect 911 connectivity, and it’s a challenge. The government is in ongoing discussions with providers like Bell MTS, but we aren’t part of those talks. We know there are coverage gaps, and we try to work within those as best we can."
