The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) has approved signing an agreement with Telus to ensure the Next Generation 911 service for a five-year term.
Next Generation 911 is a federally mandated, modernization of Canada’s current 911 system.
It will allow people to text and send video and pictures in real-time and responders can track the exact location of the caller.
RDEK Director David Wilks said the implementation has taken a long time and the costs are not clear at all.
“The challenge that we’ve had both municipally and regionally is it’s been a long process,” he said.
“This has been coming for years and as a result of that, the financial obligations have been a moving target and continue to be a moving target. We still don’t know how much this is going to cost.”
Wilks is fine with the changes to the 911 system but wasn’t happy about being stiff-armed into signing an agreement with unforeseen costs.
“My big thing is we just don’t know how much it’s going to cost and I would have liked to know how much it costs before moving forward but I also understand that we had a gun to our head that said we must sign it by July 1 or there are ramifications.”
He said the RDEK will now be stuck with whatever the final number is.
“The motion passed and I’m okay with that, but we signed something without knowing what the financial obligations are,” Wilks said.
“We’ll see what they are when they come but regardless of what the number is we’ve signed a document with Telus to move forward.”
Next Generation 911 is expected to be implemented nationwide by March 4, 2025.
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