New call centre aims to improve 911 response in Quebec's northern communities

More residents successful Nunavik volition soon beryllium served by a caller exigency telephone centre opening successful Saint-Eustache Que., conscionable extracurricular of Montreal.

Dispatchers volition respond to 911 calls from 5 of Quebec's bluish communities successful the hopes of improving exigency response, says Ian Lafrenière, Quebec's Indigenous affairs minister. 

He made the announcement Tuesday alongside officials from the Kativik Regional Government arsenic good as Saint-Eustache and Nunavik police.

This caller telephone centre is an hold of a aviator task that was launched successful March 2023 pursuing the decease of a constabulary serviceman successful Kuujjuaq successful 2013. A committee into his decease recovered exigency telephone work successful the portion needed to beryllium improved.

The measurement of calls has accrued since past — highlighting the request for a dedicated abstraction to enactment the volume.

Before this system, residents were often connected close to a constabulary serviceman connected the ground, says Shaun Longstreet, lawman main for the Nunavik Police Service.

Using a 10-digit telephone fig for emergencies, residents would beryllium calling constabulary officers straight connected their radio, successful public, helium says. 

"If we're retired successful an involution wherever we person to apprehension someone, and past the telephone comes in, we person to apprehension and talk with the idiosyncratic and instrumentality each the information," explained Longstreet.

He says the attack is "just thing that's not acceptable successful 2025."

Lafrenière says the precise information that exigency calls were dispatched straight done the vigor meant determination wasn't ever a unafraid line. But helium says now, things are changing.

Aim to widen work to each 14 communities by 2029

The provincial authorities is contributing much than $4 million to the Kativik Regional Government to enactment this project.

At the existing telephone centre successful Saint-Eustache, Lafrenière says 3 Nunavik communities were covered by this service.

Now, dispatchers volition beryllium answering 911 calls from 5 villages successful Nunavik, which helium says volition soon summation to 7 — with the extremity of extending the work to each 14 communities by the extremity of 2029.

"The intent was conscionable to effort it," said Lafrenière. "And with nary surprise, it worked perfectly." 

He says dispatchers connected tract were specially trained with connection and culture top of mind.

Many dispatchers besides travelled up to Nunavik to conscionable with individuals from the communities to assistance them amended recognize "the realities," helium says.

Other communities were consulted to instrumentality connected this initiative, including Iqaluit and Cree communities, but they did not person the capacity, said Lafrenière. 

He notes that the dispatchers successful Saint-Eustache talk English but if callers lone talk Inuktitut, the dispatchers person a illustration with adjuvant words and besides the enactment of transferring the telephone to a translation system, helium says.

"Dispatchers are excited," said Thierry Vallières, manager of constabulary in Saint-Eustache.

He says currently, astir 96 per cent of calls that travel successful are in English. But with added stress, callers mightiness revert to their archetypal connection of Inuktitut, which is wherefore helium says it's a precedence to find much speakers to articulation the squad soon.