The Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office said residents looking to get updates after alert notifications are sent to their phones should check social media instead of waiting for end-of-incident alerts.
Paul Mason, the executive director of the NSEMO, called social media an “effective tool” for determining whether emergency alerts are still in place, provided they come from a reliable source.
The comments come nearly two weeks after police in Bible Hill, N.S. sent emergency alerts to phones and media alarming that armed man was near a school just outside Truro. Residents were told to shelter in place.
While police had sent out an initial alert to phones and media on April 19, they only told residents they had apprehended the suspect on the social media platform, X.
According to the RCMP, which has sent out 25 alerts since it took more power of the service in 2021, officers don’t want to send more alerts because they could “interrupt” people or “re-wake” someone who had fallen asleep after the initial message. The say they prefer to send all alerts to media outlets and social media instead.
Residents in Bible Hill told Global News they were hoping to receive an alert telling them they could leave their shelter in place orders.
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“Everything ended quietly. We never got a message saying that he was found but I did find out from the homeowner that he’s in custody now,” said Zachary Hunt, who was working on a house in the area when he received an emergency alert.
“We locked the door and watched from the windows. They had two K-9 units, at least. Everything seemed professional.”
Police say they’ll continue to door-knock and alert those in the immediate area of updates to safety.
In 2023, the Mass Casualty Commission looking into the province’s deadly mass shooting slammed the RCMP for using social media to update the public. The report examined RCMP communications and the lack thereof as the event unfolded.
Since the tragedy, the Mounties have faced intense public scrutiny for providing updates exclusively through X, formerly known as Twitter.
“This failure to consider issuing an emergency broadcast reflects a systemic failure on the part of (the Nova Scotia RCMP), over several years, to recognize the utility of Alert Ready for its emergency public communications,” the report said.
When asked about those who don’t use social media regularly, Mason told Global News, “It’s not always something that you may have an opportunity to refresh,” and that it’s up to those agencies to determine if there’s a need to send out additional alerts.
The comments come with calls from former first responders in Nova Scotia to come up with a new way to inform people that an alert has concluded.
Terry Canning, who spent 15 years as the deputy chief of Brookfield Fire and Emergency Services, told Global News that EMO’s push for residents to use social media is “not an answer,” saying not all residents have social media.
While he echoed sentiment from the RCMP on overusing the system by pushing too many alerts, Canning said that the province should relook at its system.
“Somehow, we have to be able to develop a protocol to terminate, (or) a different type of alert tone or a different type of alert message. Somehow, there’s got to be a way to do that.
“We’re in the 21st century, for Pete’s sake.”
EMO admitted that there is room for improvement in the service.
— with files from Global News’ Alex Cooke
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