1. 9-1-1 Implementation NWT Association of Communities 2017 Annual General Meeting
This topic is about the GNWT’s effort to implement a territory-wide Basic system, and what it means to community governments.
May 11-14, 2017

2. What is 9-1-1? First, lets talk about how 9-1-1 actually functions.
9-1-1 service connects residents to a call centre when they need emergency help.
The caller describes the situation and location to an operator, who then connects the caller to the appropriate emergency responder serving their community.
The NWTAC has been asking the GNWT to make a priority for quite some time and recently, MACA received approval to proceed with implementing a basic system on a territorial-wide basis.
Similar to NFLD and the Yukon, we will soon rely upon a single emergency contact number to access critical emergency response personnel.
Lets look at a few facts to describe what this means to residents.

3. 9-1-1 Quick Facts
Connects residents with existing emergency services (replaces 1111 and 2222);
Immediate help from trained dispatchers - provides reassurance and obtains critical information);
More than just fire, police or ambulance:
poison control,
civil emergencies,
rescue,
missing persons.
Not just English;
User pay; and
Limited liability for key participants.
9-1-1 will connect residents with emergency services which already exist – it will not create new services;
9-1-1 will replace the current emergency contact numbers for Police and ambulance (1111 and 2222);
9-1-1 will provide residents immediate help from trained dispatchers who can provide reassurance and obtain critical information for responders;
9-1-1 will help improve access to more than just fire, police and ambulance.
9-1-1 will offer services in official languages;
Community governments will not pay for 9-1-1, since it will be a user pay system; and
First responders will not be liable for performing their jobs while responding to a call.

4. Community Government Involvement
Emergency Dial Plans;
Current emergency services
Other available services
Municipal Addressing;
Street names and numbers
Structured approach and guidance
Communications;
Education and awareness
Ongoing Development;
Community Fire Protection
So what does all this mean to your community government?
Community governments will be asked to participate in several ways:
We will need emergency dial plans for each community concerning available services and who to call to access those services;
We will focus on improving municipal addressing for effective deployment of emergency personnel;
9-1-1 requires good communication to ensure residents are familiar with the system; and
Partners will need to work together in the longer term to ensure the system continues to serve our needs and it evolves in the right direction.

5. Community Emergency Dial Plans
9-1-1 implementation requires emergency dial plans, including:
Local RCMP detachment phone number and hours of operation (where applicable);
Alternate RCMP phone number (likely the Yellowknife RCMP OCC);
Local fire department phone number – 24x7x365 days (as applicable);
Alternate fire department phone number (a neighboring community fire department);
Local EMS/medical clinic phone number and hours of operation (where applicable);
Alternate EMS/medical phone number (a neighboring community medical clinic); and
Other agencies.
An integral part of the system will be working with Community Governments to create emergency dial plans.
This will help identify dedicated personnel and contact numbers for available emergency services.
For communities where some services are unavailable, other measures will need to be identified.
Information about key contacts and services will be made available to call centre staff who are responsible for ensuring people get connected with the right help.

6. Municipal Addressing Municipal Addressing Guidelines:
Model system to accommodate all NWT communities;
Based on existing standards (E.g. Canada Post; National Emergency Number Association);
Available funding:
Development - Operations and Maintenance funding; and
Street Signage – Community Public Infrastructure funding.
Support and guidance from MACA.
As you can appreciate, municipal addressing is very important to help quickly deploy emergency responders to the right location.
Recognizing municipal addressing is something that takes time, we need to establish some good guidance to help community governments decide what’s appropriate for their community.
Many provinces have developed a common model or template to help guide community efforts.
It is unlikely municipal addressing will be made mandatory, but we need to do what we can over the next couple years to make good progress in this area before we launch

7. Communications
Stakeholders must work together to ensure good knowledge of a system, the ways it can help residents, and what not to use it for. A communications campaign may include:
9-1-1 Tips;
Information for disabled and hearing/speech impaired;
Public education;
Guidance for official languages;
Education materials;
Fire prevention and family emergency preparedness;
Outreach – schools, web, and social media;
Public notices (E.g. recreation centres, municipal offices, etc.).
Effective public communications is another important part of implementation that we’ll need to work together on.
When is launched, we need to make sure residents are aware of the system, and how it works.
The list on this slide gives you an idea of the kinds of things we’ll consider for residents and we’ll look to communities to help ensure we get it right.

8. Ongoing Development System evaluation and adjustments;
Ongoing work – municipal addressing, communications, and dial plans;
Strengthening emergency services - community fire protection action plans; and
Next Generation
After implementation , partners will need to work together to learn what's working and what’s not working.
We’ll need to make changes where appropriate and we’ll need continue working with you to understand your operating environment.
We will continue efforts to communicate with residents, improve municipal addressing, and maintain community emergency dial plans;
Efforts will need to continue on improving and strengthening our emergency services; and
We will need to work together to implement newer versions of in the future.

9. Implementation Road Map
Planning and Legislation (Spring 2017)
Tariff Approval and System Preparation (Winter 2018)
Call Centre Preparation (Fall 2018)
Community Preparation (Winter 2019)
9-1-1 Launch (Spring 2019)
Here’s a simple timeline which describes key activities that we’ll focus on leading up to implementation in 2019.
A call centre is being considered in Yellowknife, although some work remains to ensure that’s the best approach.
Community preparation will likely begin fairly soon and we’ll aim to complete that work with you in winter 2019.
Regular updates will be made available on a special website to ensure stakeholders have good information about the project, and access to help where necessary.

10. Next Steps
Identify available emergency services in your community (E.g. rescue, ambulance, fire protection):
Identify the names and phone numbers of the primary contacts to access these services.
Review the current municipal addressing system for your community:
Identify what is currently in place and what remains for full addressing throughout your community.
Continue to develop current services:
Assess your community fire protection service and work with MACA to establish an action plan for improvement.
Finally, this slide provides a short list of things your community can be thinking about in the next while before we contact you to start putting various pieces into place.
9-1-1 itself will not require time or resources beyond what you already have.
It does however prompt you to think about where you wish to be in the future with regard to emergency services and municipal addressing.
Again, our aim is to support community efforts and to avoid burdening you with much more than you already have on you plate.
I commit that guidance will be provided to help support future decision-making while implement for your community.
To this end, an immediate priority of mine is to prepare some background information for you to share with municipal leadership which details what we’re aiming to accomplish and how we aim to get there. You can expect to recieve that information this spring.