Quick summary of tonight's 9-1-1 meeting

I heard at the beginning of the meeting tonight that the meeting was to decide whether Lasqueti would use the new 9-1-1 system.  Later on, I heard that it's a done deal as the Powell River Regional District (PRRD) Board passed a resolution giving the contract to North Island 9-1-1 (NI911).

The NI911 people presented an informative slideshow which documented their systems and research into covering our island with paging service.  Obviously they knew their stuff and have for quite some time.

Mt. Trematon will NOT have a tower of any size.  The error of even considering that was exposed when Susan, one of our Trustees, explained that she informed the Regional District in May of 2014 that it would not be possible given the covenants in place.  That message wasn't actually heard by the people at the meeting until last month.  In the interim, towers in Errington will be used. Eventually a tower will be erected on Texada to serve us.

The Regional District Mapper also knows her stuff and repeatedly made pleas for us to accept a new civic address.  She also listed about 10 organizations that will automatically get all this new information, without our consent.  Then the NI911 person made it clear that civic addresses were mandatory for them to take us on, even though they also will take us on starting April 1st without civic addresses.  The PRRD Mapper said we would have to post our civic addresses on our trails/driveways/strata roads for this system to work.

I'm still not clear if NI911 will only dispatch Fire or both Fire and Medical emergencies.

It was said early on that the Telus paging system will end at the end of March.

The First Responders made it clear that the current Telus pagers were problematic.  I wasn't convinced (but like most of us, haven't been part of the discussion) that other pagers couldn't be used instead.

The main problems with the new system seem to be trying to fit Lasqueti into an outside system's box.  As with all services, we've provided/created our own so we don't fit the outside's norms.

When all is said and done, the local First Responders are going to shoulder most of the work of retraining and knowing where to go despite the new system and its map books.  There is the possibility of reduced times to attend calls but it sounds like the time savings would be in the range of a few minutes in a context of hours to actually get a serious issue to a hospital.

I'm not aware of anyone who has chosen to live here because of an expectation of quick emergency response times.

I heard that many of the First Responders, the PRRD, and NI911 all believe that this new system would be the "best" for us.

I also heard that no one in the room was satisfied by the consultation.  The Telus pagers were known to be phased out in June 2014 but I didn't hear about this issue until late January 2015, after the PRRD had passed a resolution on our behalf.

I also heard that we already have the technology in place and in use for the First Responders to communicate with each other.  This new system is being imposed upon us so that we can contact the First Responders from telephones, many of which don't work.  Many people also choose not to have a telephone.  Only some VOIP phones will work with the new system.  And many cell phones don't have reception for voice calls.  It was made very clear that texting NI911 is NOT an option unless you are hearing impaired.

For $100,000 this next year in taxes, I wonder how many VHS radios could be bought and given to those that don't have one, so that we can call the First Responders?  If I heard correctly, a transceiver (which can call and receive) costs $500, so that would be about 2,000 new VHS radios.

And given some time to research this as a community, I'd be surprised if we couldn't find an even cheaper, more effective means of resolving this issue.

A completely on-island solution initially seems daunting, as a 24/7 dispatcher would need to be found (and paid).  However, we currently use BC Ambulance and there is nothing preventing us from continuing to use them.  I heard that they may be slower to dispatch than NI911 but they weren't present at the meeting.  Again, the link from BC Ambulance to our First Responders would need to be replaced when the Telus pagers are decommissioned in a month and a half.

In summary, the lack of consultation remained an issue, privacy, or the erosion of it, was another primary concern, as was the one-time cost of $100,000 of the new system.  The ongoing cost is comparable to the cost of the current system and any new capital expenditures will not result in another tax increase (or so they told us).

This meeting didn't resolve any of those concerns.  It did inform us that this new 9-1-1 system is being imposed upon us, at least tax-wise.  The mapper needs our help to create the new system and one person stated that he could guarantee that some people will not cooperate.

There, now I can sleep for tonight.
Dave