Nunavik’s emergency call centre expands to more communities

An emergency call centre serving Nunavik is expanding with three more communities to be added to the service by the end of summer.

The call centre will eventually serve all Nunavik communities, Saint-Eustache Mayor Pierre Charron said Tuesday at a news conference.

The call centre is located in the municipality, situated on the north shore of Montreal.

First run as a pilot project by the Nunavik Police Service in 2023, the emergency call centre began by serving Umiujaq, then expanded to Kuujjuaraapik, Puvirnituq and Inukjuak.

The Government of Quebec has paid $4.2 million to operate the service.

The service aligns with the development of a fibre optic project, led by the Kativik Regional Government, that enables high-speed phone connections. KRG says all 14 communities should be connected by 2029.

When in full service, the call centre is expected to receive approximately 60,000 calls per year and have 40 people on staff working at all times to dispatch Nunavik police officers.

Nunavik Police Service deputy Chief Shaun Longstreet said three more communities are going to be added to the system this summer.

“Our goal is to offer the same level of service that we do in any other police service in Quebec,” he said during the news conference, which was also attended by Ian Lafrenière, Quebec’s minister of Indigenous relations, and call centre employees.

Ian Lafrenière, Quebec’s minister for Indigenous relations, said the province’s goal is to ensure Nunavik receives the same level of police service as other parts of Quebec. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

Salluit was connected a few weeks ago, Ivujivik will see its service established in July, and Akulivik is expected to join in August, said Longstreet.

He said the difference between having a call centre and not having one is like night and day.

In communities without call centres, police officers answer emergency calls by themselves. Whether they are at the station and pick up the phone or pick it up through their radio, Longstreet said it delays the officer from responding to the request for service.

Sometimes in those communities, officers need to pick up multiple emergency calls at the same time, all while trying to note everything down and drive to the scene.

“In 2025, that is unacceptable,” Longstreet said in an interview after the news conference.

The push to establish an emergency call centre for Nunavik followed the death in 2013 of Steve Déry, a police officer who had answered a call for domestic violence in Kuujjuaq.

A report written after Déry’s death by Quebec’s labour security commission called for an emergency call centre to be established for the region to avoid putting officers at risk while they manage multiple interventions simultaneously.

Call centre employees go through a five-hour cultural training workshop and are offered opportunities to go to Nunavik in order to increase their understanding of the region.

When it comes to Inuktitut, dispatchers use an important word sheet that they can refer to when communicating with officers.