qathet Regional District (qRD) City of Powell River director George Doubt has been authorized to execute North Island 9-1-1 Corporation shareholders’ and directors’ resolutions on behalf of the regional district.
At the March 22 regional board meeting, directors also voted for the regional board to consent to the shareholders’ and directors’ resolutions, which, according to Doubt, reflect the fact there were some new members on the board since last year, and some clarification regarding publishing of the corporation’s audited financial statements.
In his director’s report at the regional board meeting, Doubt said the week previous to the qRD board meeting was the regular North Island 9-1-1 board meeting. He said the board looked at service levels going back to 2013 and performance rating per call answered.
“It’s consistently above the 95 per cent target line for all those years except for some time in 2021, which was during the heatwave, and during the time when the BC Ambulance Service was experiencing delays in their call answering,” said Doubt. “This reflected back to E-Comm 911 and North Island 9-1-1, causing delays and the necessity to actually employ extra staff. The good news about that is it is back up to well above the expectations throughout the time period now.”
Doubt said a report was received from E-Comm 911, which is the organization that directly answers 911 calls before they are sent to North Island 9-1-1. E-Comm provided a detailed report on costs, talking about price increases from 2018 to now, and being insufficient to cover inflation and volume increases it has been having. This has resulted in increases in charges to North Island 9-1-1, which is $30,000 more than was expected.
“We passed a motion in the board meeting to add that extra $30,000 into the assessment for the 2023 fiscal year,” said Doubt. “That’s a significant change.”
Doubt said modernization of emergency communications was also discussed, and next generation 911, which is going to be a transition to being able to use real-time texting, so people using the service won’t only have to speak to 911.
Doubt said this will be happening in the near future and 911 operators will be able to text back. There are a number of situations where text messaging might be more appropriate, he added.
“It also allows video sharing, so you could have real-time video of a fire call or a car accident, so the responders who are coming would be well aware,” said Doubt. “That’s all going to take place by 2025.”
Doubt said the 911 service is looking at accessing funds from Union of British Columbia Municipalities for the expanded service.
He said North Island 9-1-1 does most of the emergency calls for qathet Regional District, with exception of Lasqueti Island.
Doubt said qRD’s share of the cost for North Island 9-1-1 is 8.25 per cent of the entire cost.
Electoral Area C director and regional board chair Clay Brander said it was good to hear that the service is performing well, and he was glad to hear about advancements coming with the next generation 911 service.
