Residents in the west end of Rainy River District will not be dialing 9-1-1 until December.
While all the municipalities have spent the money to have every road mapped and building numbered last year, Bell Canada is not prepared to have the service up-and-running until the end of the year.
As reported in last week’s times, residents there will have to continue to dial one of the three seven-digit numbers for police, fire, or ambulance in an emergency until then.
“The Rainy River customer, the participants being the Township of Rainy River, Dawson, Emo, La Vallee, Lake of the Woods, Chapple, Rainy River, Rainy River First Nation, and Northwest Bay First Nation, have all provided their mapping and addressing requirements,” said Dan Ranich, a Bell Canada 911 Focus Group member.
“We’ll be looking to cutover the 911 on Dec. 12 of this year,” he added.
District municipalities have been preparing to meet the 911 requirements for quite some time–and some had indicated they expected the service to be provided early this year.
“That’s great news, that’s great,” said La Vallee Reeve Ken McKinnon. “It would have been better sooner but at least we have a definite date.”
Ranich said preparation for the service west of Alberton already is underway.
“We’re just doing the design and creating the database to make sure that when people dial 9-1-1, they’re going to reach the proper police, fire, or ambulance,” he explained.
“And that work should take us up to the testing period in November and then the provincial cutover Dec. 12.”
To cover the costs of the 911 service, a small increase is added on to area phone bills.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
