RCMP emergency lines to go offline in parts of Nunavut this week
People in 13 communities can expect service to be down for 6 hours on Wednesday
Nunavut RCMP issued an unusual advisory last week — what was the subject matter? (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Updated Sept. 24 at 4:15 p.m. ET
Nunavut RCMP are warning people that the police emergency phone number will be unavailable for about six hours on Wednesday.
The outage is to allow for Northwestel network upgrades, RCMP said in a news release last week.
RCMP Emergency phone numbers ending in 1111 will not be available.
People who need to contact police in the 13 communities during the outage, which is scheduled to last between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m., should call their local non-emergency lines which end with 0123.
The following communities are to be affected by the RCMP emergency number outage:
- Igloolik
- Iqaluit
- Pangnirtung
- Gjoa Haven
- Sanirajak
- Pond Inlet
- Arviat
- Chesterfield Inlet
- Grise Fiord
- Kimmirut
- Qikiqtarjuaq
- Naujaat
- Whale Cove
The RCMP advised that communities not listed might also be impacted by the outage.
In addition to the RCMP’s planned outage, Iqaluit’s emergency service number — 867-979-4422 — will also be unavailable during that six-hour period, the city advised late Monday.
During that time, residents should instead call 867-223-4422 for emergency services.
In a news release Tuesday afternoon, the Government of Nunavut announced the outage will “disrupt long distance calling for all communities” in addition to the disruption to emergency service calls.
It recommended people use a landline to phone their community health centre during that time and to check Northwestel’s Facebook page for updates on service.
Note: This story was updated to include information from the Government of Nunavut
Serious question: why don’t we have 911 here? Is it a technical limitation? Has no one bothered to implement it?
The simple answer is the political masters do not care about the public’s safety.