REGINA – The next time city streets are flooded or your neighbourhood is hit with a water main break, the way you find out could have a new ring to it.
The City of Regina’s emergency measures committee recommends starting an emergency mass notification system. Residents who sign up would receive texts, emails or voice mail messages about emergencies of varying degrees.
Through the emergency messaging service, residents could be alerted to the need to stay indoors or evacuation orders. A committee report noted the system can also work “just as effectively” for day-to-day emergencies such as Amber Alerts or utility interruptions.
“This allows us to actively push the information directly to you … saying there’s an issue, and this is what you should be doing,” said Ernie Polsom, Regina’s chief of fire and protective services.
“The more people we can get helping themselves, the more people available to help those who can’t help themselves.”
It follows the 2013 ‘Exercise Domino’ in Saskatoon, where city staff said, “it was identified that sending targeted information and being able to get feedback from the community was essential.”
In March 2014, the City of Saskatoon launched NotifyNOW and established a contact database by purchasing phone book numbers.
The province-wide SaskAlert system is in a testing phase right now, but it’s based on smartphone applications along with radio, television and social media.
Right now, the City of Regina issues advisories to local news outlets and publishes information on Twitter and Facebook.
Establishing a messaging system in Regina would require an $82,000 initial investment, with $40,000 paying for an advertising campaign to make people aware of the new system and encourage residents to sign up. Yearly operations would cost about $56,000.
“To me, safety is important. The cost is minimal,” said Mayor Michael Fougere. “We expect to have it done this year, which I think is good timing.”
If approved by city council, it could be used in emergencies as soon as late 2015.
“The more people we can get helping themselves, the more people available to help those who can’t help themselves,” Polsom said.
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