‘Very shocking’ 911 outage a first for N.S.: EMO minister

Bell Aliant said the widespread outage was caused by a software update introduced in preparation for 10-digit dialing for New Brunswick

CITYnews halifax \ Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

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HALIFAX — Most of the 911 systems across the Maritimes were offline for more than two hours Tuesday after a main system switch failed and a backup system broke down, Nova Scotia officials say.

John Lohr, Nova Scotia’s minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office, said the province learned at 7 a.m. that the 911 service for people using landlines had been knocked out, and those with wireless devices were also affected, though some cellphone providers did provide access.

Lohr said the “very shocking” outage across all three provinces was a first.

“We’re aware of how disconcerting this would be for the province to not have this service for two hours,” the minister told a virtual news conference. “It’s clear that could cost somebody their life if they didn’t receive the services they needed, or if there was something on fire, it would be lost.”

He said he was unaware of any serious fallout from the disruption.

Bell Aliant, which oversees the system across Atlantic Canada, issued a statement saying the system experienced problems between 6 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. local time.

The company said the widespread outage was caused by a software update introduced in preparation for 10-digit dialing for New Brunswick. When the software triggered call processing failures to 911, the company rolled back the update.

“We have adjusted our processes and safeguards to ensure that this type of issue will not happen again,” a Bell spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Outages pertaining to 911 are rare …. This current issue was an isolated incident.”

After the system crashed, officials in the region scrambled to issue emergency alerts through the Alert Ready system, sending alarms and emergency messages to radios, TV screens and cellphones.

But it took about an hour for those alerts to be sent across Nova Scotia because the extent of the problem was unclear, and the province had to assemble a list of alternative phone numbers to be included in the alert, Lohr said.

Paul Mason, director of Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office, said all three provinces were affected because the 911 system based in New Brunswick serves all three provinces. The main switch is in Fredericton and the backup is in Moncton.

“It is a robust system and we’ve never had, to my knowledge, an incident like this before,” Mason said.

Mason’s agency issued an emergency alert just after 8 a.m. advising that the system was having issues. A followup alert at 8:42 a.m. confirmed service had been restored, but provincial officials later issued a statement saying full restoration happened shortly after 9 a.m.

New Brunswick’s Organization of Emergency Measures confirmed similar problems around 8 a.m., and the organization issued a statement at 9:28 a.m. saying the system was back in operation.

In P.E.I., the Island’s Public Safety Department issued a statement just before 9 a.m., saying the system had been restored.

The first alert sent across Nova Scotia said anyone having trouble using 911 they should instead call one of four regular telephone numbers listed in the alert.

“People are encouraged to write down these numbers or save them on their phone to ensure quick access in case of a future disruption,” Lohr said in a statement.

• Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM): 1-902-490-5020
• Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM): 1-902-563-5151
• Cape Breton Island excluding CBRM: 1-800-803-7267
• mainland Nova Scotia (excluding HRM and Kentville): 1-800-803-7267
• Kentville: 1-902-678-2100
• Emergency Health Services (EHS) toll-free number: 1-888-346-9999.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2023.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press