REGINA – When you call 911, you probably expect someone to answer the phone immediately – but that doesn’t always happen in Saskatchewan.
Sometimes, the call-takers are busy answering other calls.
Saskatchewan has three 911 centres: one in Regina, one in Saskatoon and one in Prince Albert responding for the rest of the province.
“Typically we will see two or three operators that are taking calls in each of those centres,” said Duane McKay, the province’s emergency management co-ordinator.
Those numbers can increase when officials expect call volumes to be higher, like in the spring when grass fires are frequently popping up.
If there’s an unforeseen emergency, dispatchers and non-emergency responders can be added to the 911 system on the fly. If all the headsets are in use, seven people will be fielding initial 911 calls.
Sometimes though, it’s not enough and calls come in that nobody can answer.
“So the call goes into a queue. We have an intercept message there to ensure people know that they have reached 911. The next available operator will take that,” explained McKay.
According to the province’s statistics, around 12,000 calls enter the queue every year. Considering 312,000 911 calls are received each year, that works out to four per cent of calls not being answered immediately.
- ‘Shock and disbelief’ after Manitoba school trustee’s Indigenous comments
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- Several baby products have been recalled by Health Canada. Here’s the list
- ‘Sciatica was gone’: hospital performs robot-assisted spinal surgery in Canadian first
The province couldn’t tell Global News exactly how long callers are waiting for – “That was one of the statistics that our system wouldn’t actually provide us,” McKay said.
He estimates the wait might last up to a minute and a half, precious seconds in an emergency.
The longest queue times happen when the system is flooded with calls – potentially about the same issue. Sometimes though, they aren’t about an emergency at all.
“About 18 per cent of calls coming in to 911 are either pocket dials, or the person is calling for ridiculous reasons. To order pizza or check on landfill hours, whatever it might be,” McKay said. “Those will cause the system to back up and obviously increase the number of people getting into the queue.”
911 centres in other provinces have also dealt with the issue, and have already taken steps to reduce their wait times.
“If somebody is being assaulted, or there’s a crime in progress, someone could be seriously injured. We want to get online with people on 911 as soon as possible and then stay with them,” said Inspector Erik Johnson with the Edmonton Police Service.
On Wednesday, Global News will publish part two of the “911 On Hold” series, looking at how Saskatchewan stacks up compared to 911 services in other provinces.
PART 2: 911 on hold: How other provinces answer emergency calls
Comments