911 operator challenges Bell to revamp database in wake of municipal mergers

The aftereffects of municipal amalgamation have resulted in some 911 responses ending up at the wrong address, and a dispatcher in Southern Ontario is calling on the CRTC, local politicians and Bell Canada to solve the problem. Bell Canada, however, says nothing can be done until the cities get their own acts together. Over the last three years, various regions in Ontario and Quebec have been merging into larger cities. In Ontario, the process began in Toronto in 1998 where six boroughs were combined to form a supercity. Other areas like Ottawa and Hamilton underwent similar changes at the beginning of the year. Plans for mergers in Quebec have led to protests against the provincial government. One of the side effects of the amalgamation has been the duplication of street names. This plays havoc with 911 services, which cannot be sure what particular Dundas or Queen Street needs to be served. Deryk McGrath, president of Seaway Communications of Belleville ON, cites an example his own 911 operators encountered recently. A call came in from Victoria Rd. in the nearby town of Ameliasburgh. The fire engines reached the proper address, but an ambulance was dispatched to Victoria Ave. in Belleville, about a half-hour drive away. He blames the mix up on the database used. "Every address, because it comes on a Bell Canada database, has got a postal municipality," says McGrath, who was also a mayoralty candidate in last year’s municipal elections. "Well, the postal municipality of Belleville includes the city of Belleville, it includes part of Thurlow, it includes part of the Tyendenga reserve, it includes two areas across the bay and includes way down into Sydney Township almost to Trenton. And I’ve tried to get Bell Canada to remove it. Their answer is ‘well, one area around Ottawa uses that so we’re going to leave it in.’" Bell disputes that interpretation, but concedes improvements must be made. The postal municipality is not the only criterion used, the company’s regional manager of 911 services maintains. "While we do display the postal code as part of the caller’s name, address and phone number details, we don’t route the call on the basis of the postal code," Judy Tottman tells Network Letter. "What we do route the call on is the caller’s civic address." The telco has backup plans if the information given is not complete. That is particularly necessary if the callers are from rural areas."We continue to go after subscribers who have not given us their civic address," she says. "But in the event we have an incomplete address in our records, possibly a rural route, because the customer has chosen not to share it with us, the call gets routed on the basis of the caller’s area code and first three digits of their exchange." Tottman explains that the 911 database still depicts communities the way they looked at the end of 1997, before the mergers occurred. "Bell Canada’s 911 system has not been changed to reflect amalgamation and in large part that’s because many municipalities have not been ready. They’ve asked us to hold off." She says there is no timetable set to bring things up to speed. "The timeline is all over the map, depending on which municipality you talking to." The phone company cannot modify its service until the communities get rid of duplicate street names. McGrath, whose company answers the 911 calls but does not dispatch emergency vehicles, tells his employees to do an address check on incoming calls. The telco doesn’t like it, but the Belleville man isn’t apologizing. "Bell says it ties up the lines. Well, when you’ve got an older person, if they’re not really sure that the municipal address is correct, that they’re in the right place, it only takes 30 seconds for our operators to confirm the address and give that older person peace of mind."

911 operator challenges Bell to revamp database in wake of municipal mergers

News | 04/23/2001 4:00 am EDT

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