City council has approved $360,000 in interim funding to ring in the next generation of emergency communications in Orillia.
The funds will help implement 'next-generation' 911 services and update the fire department’s 911 dispatch centre.
The updates will enable callers to send text messages, photos and videos to 911 centres, on top of standard 911 calls. Orillia Fire Chief Michael Clark said the updates are rolling out across North America.
“The next generation 911 upgrade to the 911 dispatch centre, also known as the public safety answering point, is occurring all over North America,” Clark said.
“This is a transition of the 911 system from an analog system to an internet protocol (IP) or computer-based system. In Canada, the 911 centres are required by the CRTC (Canadian Radio Television Telecommunications Commission) to make the switch to next generation 911 by March 2025.”
Clark expects the funds will only be needed on an interim basis, as he anticipates approval for a provincial grant in the coming weeks.
“I expect that within a matter of weeks, we'll likely get a response back from the province and that should likely cover the cost of this upgrade,” Clark told councillors at Monday's meeting.
In order to meet the grant requirements of a March 24 completion date, Netagen – the company retained by the city to carry out the work – proposed a mid-October start date, leading to the request for interim funding from the city.
A capital budget of $265,000 was previously approved for the project in 2021, but the cost for hardware, software, and installation is over $673,000, and the city was $360,000 short to carry out the work.
The communications upgrades come as part of a $208-million investment by the provincial government to enhance the 911 emergency response system with upgrades to 911 dispatch centres and Next Generation 911 services.
The city secured a $620,000 provincial grant for the project last year, but had to return over $570,000 of the grant due to tight timelines, Clark said.
“In the first round of the grants in 2022, the Orillia Fire Department, which operates the local 911 dispatch centre, received $620,000. However, only $49,279 was spent in the first fiscal year of the grant funding, and the balance was returned to the province,” Clark said.
“The entire transition can take about a year to perform, and the Orillia Fire Department received notification of the 2022 funding amount only a month before the close of the fiscal year," he said.
Despite that, Clark is optimistic the province will provide the grant funding complete the work this year, and he said the next generation 911 services will be rolled out next spring.
“The Orillia Fire Department has now applied for the second round of grant funding in 2023, and we expect to hear a response shortly about the outcome,” he said. “I am optimistic that this round of the funding will cover much of the cost of this year’s upgrades to the 911 system. We expect that by April of 2024, Orillia’s 911 dispatch system will be fully compliant with the NG 911 upgrades.”
