How Halifax Water communicated major boil-water order leaves 'serious questions to answer,' says councillor

When Halifax Water wanted to get the connection retired successful precocious January astir a boil-water bid affecting astir 200,000 customers, 1 of the resources it turned to was the city's exigency notifications platform, hfxALERT.

"While this is simply a subscription-based system, it is wide utilized and supports getting the connection out," the inferior said successful a February study issued to regulators.

But astatine the clip of the Jan. 21, 2025, alert, lone astir 40,000 of the city's astir 500,000 residents were signed up to the platform.

Just however Halifax Water communicated with residents astir the boil-water bid was, successful part, the taxable of 2 blunt emails a municipal councillor sent to a brace of Halifax Water officials — spokesperson Jeff Myrick and wide manager Kenda MacKenzie — connected the greeting of Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

District 16 Coun. Jean St-Amand called the utility's attack "another nonaccomplishment successful our captious exigency communications apparatus," and said "there are superior questions to reply here."

CBC News obtained the emails done an access-to-information request. The Bedford-Wentworth councillor highlighted problems, successful part, with however Nova Scotia Power notifies the h2o inferior of planned outages and however Halifax Water communicates with residents astir work issues.

"I was truly trying to get astatine the essence of what I felt could person been done amended and wherefore I was asking the questions that I was asking [was] due to the fact that it was a reflection of what I was being asked by residents," St-Amand told CBC.

The advisory was enactment successful spot aft a planned outage by Nova Scotia Power caused an contented astatine the Pockwock Lake h2o attraction facility. Water continued to beryllium treated, but lacked chlorine disinfection. While the interruption was primitively reported arsenic allowing unchlorinated h2o to participate the strategy for astir 30 minutes, the study filed with regulators said it was really 66 minutes.

It was the 2nd clip successful little than a twelvemonth that a wide boil-water bid was successful spot for a swath of the Halifax Regional Municipality. The archetypal incident, connected Canada Day, ended up lasting 40 hours and besides affected customers who get their h2o from the Pockwock facility.

Pockwock serves astir fractional of Halifax Water's customers

Pockwock is the largest attraction installation for Halifax Water, offering up h2o to astir fractional of its customers.

The January boil-water bid caused disruptions passim the municipality, prompting immoderate businesses to adjacent and forcing immoderate surgeries to beryllium rescheduled.

The bid besides attracted scathing disapproval from the premier.

"This is an atrocious situation, a implicit embarrassment," Tim Houston told CTV News. "Shame connected Halifax Water."

Outage notifications

If it wasn't for an off-duty Halifax Water employee, the inferior whitethorn not person learned astir the planned Nova Scotia Power outage earlier the powerfulness went out.

While residents specified arsenic St-Amand received automated phone messages from Nova Scotia Power about the planned outage, which was acceptable to hap astatine 10:30 p.m. AT connected Monday, Jan. 20, the autodial fig connected record for Halifax Water's Pockwock facility was inactive.

Around 8:35 p.m., an off-duty Halifax Water worker saw a societal media station astir the planned outage and texted an on-duty relation asking if they knew astir it. The on-duty staffer past began taking steps to prepare.

In 1 of St-Amand's emails to MacKenzie and Myrick, helium wondered what was required of Nova Scotia Power for notifying Halifax Water astir outages.

MacKenzie told CBC that immoderate of the telephone numbers Nova Scotia Power had connected manus were retired of day oregon weren't being answered by the due unit members. As a effect of the January incident, she said, Nova Scotia Power present calls a 24-hour fig astatine Halifax Water to guarantee nonstop interaction with staff.

Notifying residents

While the metropolis has its ain exigency notifications level — hfxALERT — users indispensable motion up to person the alerts, which tin travel via substance message, email oregon an app notification.

Under the province's exigency alert system, messages are automatically sent to people's cellphones — they bash not person to motion up to person them. Both the provincial system and hfxALERT tin geographically people radical successful circumstantial areas.

In 1 of St-Amand's emails, helium said residents were asking astir the deficiency of a region-wide exigency alert.

Social media flaws

"Social media is wholly inadequate to the task, particularly arsenic residents whitethorn spell astir their greeting routine, utilizing this present at-risk water, without having seen thing from Halifax Water until aft the fact, if astatine all," wrote St-Amand on Jan. 21.

As of mid-May, Halifax Water had astir 5,000 followers connected Facebook and astir 8,200 connected X (formerly Twitter).

MacKenzie told CBC the threshold for utilizing the provincial alert strategy is erstwhile determination is an imminent menace to life.

During the Canada Day boil-water order, alerts were issued done the hfxALERT and provincial systems.

To get the connection retired astir the boil-water bid connected the greeting of Jan. 21, Halifax Water relied connected its societal media channels, nationalist work notices it sent to media outlets and interviews with them, and emails sent to country councillors. An hfxALERT was issued astatine 6:45 a.m.

Alert strategy has 'pitifully low' fig of subscribers, says St-Amand

On that day, determination were 40,141 hfxALERT subscribers, which St-Amand told CBC is "pitifully low." Today, the fig of subscribers is conscionable nether 44,500.

MacKenzie said she wasn't alert however fewer radical were signed up for the work successful January.

"I bash cognize that HRM is continuing, particularly done [its] caller Emergency [Preparedness] Week, to beforehand sign-up to the Halifax alert and hopes to get much radical subscribing to that," she said.

MacKenzie said the inferior did contented a non-intrusive alert done the provincial strategy during the January boil-water order. However, these alerts lone amusement up for users of The Weather Network app.

In 1 of St-Amand's emails, helium said societal media should beryllium utilized arsenic a supplement — and not a replacement — for communicating with residents.

"I had to telephone my parent this greeting to pass her astir the boil advisory this morning, adjacent though she IS connected societal media," helium wrote. "The Mass Casualty Commission blasted constabulary for relying upon societal media for exigency connection organisation due to the fact that the algorithm drastically impacts visibility."

Utility looking astatine much ways to interaction customers successful emergencies

St-Amand besides wondered wherefore Halifax Water wouldn't beryllium capable to usage the accusation it already had connected manus from customers — specified arsenic telephone numbers and addresses — arsenic a means of notifying them.

MacKenzie said that due to the fact that of privateness laws, Halifax Water cannot usage customers' interaction accusation for purposes different than billing owed to the consent the inferior obtained. She said Halifax Water is looking into different ways to interaction customers during emergencies.

Asked to remark connected St-Amand's criticisms, MacKenzie said determination is country for the inferior to amended however it communicates with residents.

"We're taking that feedback and that input to effort and research antithetic mechanisms oregon antithetic avenues that we tin physique disconnected of … it's inactive a enactment successful progress, but we are taking each that feedback into consideration," she said.

On Monday, municipal unit told councillors Halifax Water present has the quality to nonstop its ain intrusive provincial alerts without waiting for HRM.

"They present person a argumentation based connected feedback received from those 2 erstwhile [boil-water] incidents, and I deliberation that's pretty good established close now," Bill Moore, Halifax's commissioner of nationalist safety, said during an enforcement committee meeting.

CAO Cathie O'Toole besides said the provincial authorities is moving to make Nova Scotia-wide recommendations for section governments and utilities about how and when alerts are issued for akin boil-water incidents.