COMMUNITY WELLNESS AND SAFETY

Commitment 4.4.7 – We will implement a territorial 9-1-1 program, including establishing new territorial legislation to help manage and govern the system.

Background:

9-1-1 is the three-digit telephone number in North America that facilitates the reporting of an emergency requiring response by a public safety agency such as search and rescue, police, firefighting or ambulance services. The NWT 9-1-1 program will integrate and/or connect citizens to pre-existing NWT services, beyond basic police, fire and ambulance services, such as suicide crisis intervention, Kids Help Phone, NWT Help Line, on-call social workers, child protection staff, wildfire reporting, and Spill Report Line.

NWT 9-1-1 will manage and integrate the NWT Public Alerting System (including AMBER alerts) into daily operations, providing citizens with critical information on emergencies in real time so they can take action to protect themselves, their loved ones and their property.

The foundational work for the project is contained in two reports completed by an interdepartmental committee and key stakeholders in 2015. MACA received start-up funding of $616,000 in the 2017-2018 GNWT Main Estimates. Ongoing operational costs will be managed through user fees.

The steps needed to establish a NWT 9-1-1 program include completion and implementation of program design (Milestone 1 & 2), development of a legislative proposal (Milestone 3), and introduction of a 9-1-1 legislative bill (Milestone 4) and regulations (Milestone 5). The program is expected to be launched across the NWT in 2019 (Milestone 6).

Links to Other Government Activities:

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For more information about this initiative, please contact the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.