Ontario rolls out emergency alerting service; Pelmorex expands to NB

Canada's emergency alerting footprint just got a lot bigger, but it still isn't available everywhere. Yesterday, the Ontario government announced that its Red Alert service will begin issuing weather and industrial warnings to Ontarians through participating media outlets. Meanwhile, the owners of Weather Network and Météomédia - which have advocated a national service - are now offering their service in three provinces, including flood-weary New Brunswick. Ontario's announcement comes more than a year after the province originally declared its intention to deploy a collaborative emergency alerting program, and is the first effort of its kind since the CRTC placed alerting in the hands of broadcasters and BDUs. The more than 210 radio and TV station members of the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB) will broadcast Red Alerts issued by the provincial government for emergencies such as tornadoes and severe weather, industrial accidents and train derailments. The Toronto Star and Toronto Sun newspapers have also agreed to post the alerts on their website, and the OnStar in-vehicle system will distribute the alerts to its 148,000 Ontario subscribers. "Early alerts will allow Ontario families to take appropriate action much more quickly in case of an emergency," said Minister of community safety and correctional services Rick Bartolucci, who announced Red Alert as part of Emergency Preparedness Week. "This new system will help people be more organized in the event of an emergency and has the potential to save lives." Canadian Communications Reports first reported the partnership between the OAB and the provincial government at the end of April 2007. CCR was told at that time the formal announcement of the Red Alert system was originally scheduled for July. Despite the delay, considering the number of broadcasters involved, it's still the most comprehensive alerting program issued since the commission set out its approach to the establishment of emergency alerts in February 2007. As a partner in the Red Alert program, Pelmorex Media Inc., will disseminate the provincial alerts through the Weather Network and Météomédia TV stations and websites, as well as through its email and text messaging service. However, the company's senior VP of strategic and regulatory affairs says he isn't aware of what's happening elsewhere in Canada to provide a similar service. "Maybe there are great secret plans afoot, but it just doesn't seem to be a lot of movement publicly on emergency alerting," says Paul Temple. Pelmorex's original emergency alerting plans were more widespread. In laying out the framework for emergency alerting last year, the CRTC denied Pelmorex's application to be the sole, mandatory, emergency alert provider for Canada through its proprietary All Channel Alert system. Undeterred, Pelmorex has continued to evolve its alerting service. Last week the broadcaster announced it would distribute provincial alerts through all of its channels in New Brunswick - appropriately timed with the flooding of the St. John River. Pelmorex also has agreements with Quebec, and now Ontario. "We've tried to position the company as very much committed to public alerting and we've done it since our inception on TV with Environment Canada messages. So that's what we're focusing on doing now," says Temple. "It's certainly something we can just go and do and right now we're more focused on getting things done. It's a lot easier to us to put the warnings on services we own and provide. It makes life easier for us because we don't need permission to do it, we can just get it done," he adds. And although Pelmorex doesn't have mandated national coverage for its alerts, it is still reaching many Canadians; its websites receive an average of 42 million visits a month, and it issues more than 200,000 emails and text message daily Canadians who subscribe to its services. Temple says they would like to partner with as many provinces as possible. The service is free, and essentially the province has only to agree to take responsibility for the alerts it provides. And as Temple notes, formulating emergency alerts is not a daily occurrence. "Touch wood, hopefully you'd never have to use it. It's the type of service that in an ideal situation would never be used by anyone."

Ontario rolls out emergency alerting service; Pelmorex expands to NB

News | 05/07/2008 2:20 pm EDT

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