18th Annual Emergency Preparedness Conference

1
CANALERT Canada Wide Public Alerting System

• 18th Annual Emergency Preparedness Conference
• Vancouver, BC
• October 5, 2005 dakdouki.chaouki_at_ic.gc.ca

2
Impetus

• Industry Canada with other departments assessed
  Canadas ability to alert Canadians of impending
  catastrophic incidents and found that Canada does
  not have an integrated Public Alerting system and
  governments are not able to effectively alert the
  public

3
Increasing Vulnerabilities

• Canadians face an increasing vulnerability to
  risk environment hazardous chemical release,
  nuclear accidents, tornados, tsunamis, flash
  floods, dam breaks, wild fires, water
  contamination, radiological and biological agents
  
• Disasters require fast response to save lives
• Canadians expect their governments to alert them
  of imminent dangers and threats

4
Strong Leadership and Endorsement

• expedite the development and implementation of
  the National Public Alerting Strategy led by
  Industry Canada
  Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers
  responsible for Emergency Management - January
  24, 2005
• directed their Ministers to work with the
  federal government to Develop a Canada-wide
  system for emergency public alerting Council of
  the Federation - July 2004
• support from CCEMO for a coordinated and
  serious national approach on the issue of public
  alerting.
  Canadian Council of Emergency Measures
  Organizations January 2004
• Senate Committee on National Security and Defence
  identified a need for a public alerting system -
  March 2004

5
National Public Alerting Strategy

• To build on strong communications infrastructure
• To provide responsible emergency managers
  immediate emergency communication to the vast
  majority of the population at risk of impending
  dangers during emergencies
• To be used by federal, provincial and municipal
  government

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CANALERT
Federal Government

• Enable access to broadcasting and telecom
  infrastructure

Provinces and Territories
Municipalities
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Need to reach Canadians wherever they are,
anytime

• Use existing robust and diversified
  telecommunications infrastructure
• Radio / Television reaches 99 of Canadians
• Cable Television and Satellite to home 70
  Cable subscribers and 20 Satellite to Home
  subscribers
• Wireless Mobile phones 98 of Canadians within
  cell phone coverage and 46 carry cell device
• Telephone 97.5 of Canadian homes have
  telephone
• Internet 56 of Canadian homes connected to the
  Internet

8
Build on Strong Base of Investment

• Initial investment under Public Safety and Anti
  Terrorism- Emergency Preparedness Initiative in
  2002 after 9/11 government approx 3.5M and
  private industry approx 1.5M
• A Vision paper for Public Alerting was drafted
  and best practices for Public Alerting were
  developed, and workshops and forums were held
• Provincial, federal and industry advisory groups
  are actively working on this initiative
• Extensive projects for both radio and television
  were completed including field tests at 24 CBC
  stations and trials of telephone notification
  systems
• Working in close collaboration with the U.S. and
  adopting North American standards

9
National Emergency Management System Context
10
Multi Year Implementation Strategy

• Year One Build on existing Public Alerting
  systems in Alberta
• Year Two to Five Rollout plan based on PT
  commitment and readiness

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Plans for First Year

• Build on Emergency Public Warning System in
  Alberta
• Develop Authorized Users Guidelines for
  CANALERT
• Expand the reach of the Alberta system through
  new technology
• Integrate access to radio, television, cable,
  telephone call-out, wireless and Internet
• Establish compatibility through the use of a
  Common Alerting Protocol

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Other National Emergency Telecom Services (NETS)

• PAD - Priority Access for Dialling
• WPS Wireless Priority Service
• HPC High Probability of Completion
• Priority for Next Generation Networks

www.nets.gc.ca
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Priority Access for Dialling (PAD)

• Dial tone priority for essential users landline
  phones
• In times of network degradation or overload
• Provided in collaboration with federal agencies,
  provincial and territorial emergency measures
  organizations and telephone companies
• 180,000 numbers in database
• Municipal, provincial, federal and NGOs
• No cost to subscribers

https//urgent.ic.gc.ca
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Wireless Priority Service (WPS)

• WPS on cellular phone PAD on landline phone
• Some differences
• Must obtain authority from IC
• Must subscribe to a WPS capable service provider
• Different priority levels
• Cost service
• Available in Canada since Nov 2004

wps.info_at_ic.gc.ca
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High Probability of Completion (HPC)

• Service for landline phones
• Priority identifiable through to destination
• Operational in US at this time
• Study conducted to determine cost and feasibility
  for Canadian PSTN
• Feasible
• Very expensive
• One carrier has applied to use deferral account
  to fund HPC implementation

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Priority for Next Generation Networks (NGN)

• NETS are affected by NGN deployment
• Determine Canadian solution for priority services

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Government of Canada www.gc.ca
Industry Canada www.ic.gc.ca
Consumer Connection www.strategis.gc.ca
National Telecom Emergency www.nets.ic.gc.ca
Public Alerting www.CANALERT.gc.ca
http//sitt.ic.gc.ca