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Northern 911 boss responds to local resident’s concerns

April 4, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By James Matthews

At least one Orangeville resident is dismayed at how he says 911 calls for emergency assistance are being handled in Dufferin County.

James Jackson provided Dufferin County council what he called a “statement of fact” during question period at its March 14 meeting. 

He told Council that his father was rushed to hospital  earlier that day when his father suffered a massive stroke.

“Mine’s more of a situation that I’m very upset about and it’s very unacceptable,” he said. “I called 911 only to have it ring six times and nobody answered the phone.”

Mr. Jackson said he then called the Orangeville Police Service directly.

“And immediately I got somebody and the ambulance service came to the house,” he said. 

Dufferin County’s 911 service is currently being provided by Sudbury-based Northern 911. Previous to 2016, the county’s emergency dispatch service was provided by the Orangeville Police Service. The OPS lost the contract then because they didn’t attach a dollar amount to its bid. Rather, their bid indicated OPS would match the price of the lowest bid received during the county’s request for tenders.

“My father has most likely got brain damage, because seconds matter,” said Mr. Jackson, who campaigned unsuccessfully for Orangeville town council in 2018. “I would like to see our 911 service come back to Dufferin County.”

Dufferin County recently renewed its 911 emergency dispatch contract with Northern 911 at a cost of just under $30,638 for this year and $31,012 for 2010.

“My question is why are we having our emergency services, our calls going up to Sudbury and being transported out from there when seconds matter,” Mr. Jackson said.

According to Mike Shantz, president at Northern 911, the emergency communication centre received two calls from Dufferin March 14. The first was logged at 11:05 a.m. and the second at 11:15 a.m.

“The (first) call rang for 12 seconds (two rings) then went to a greeting for nine seconds,” Mr. Shantz said in an email. “After these 21 seconds, our Emergency Response Specialist (ERS) answered the line, but the caller had already disconnected. Therefore, as per procedures, the ERS initiated a transfer to police.”

Then, he said, the caller attempted another call while the ERS was communicating with police. And that automatically connected the caller to the ERS and the police.

“This is a safety feature built into the 911 system design for residential lines,” he said.

Basically, the caller picked up the phone again and was immediately reconnected to the 911 call transfer that was in progress, he said.

“Our ERS released the line to the police as the caller was now communicating with them.”

The second call was answered after four seconds of ring time, Mr. Shantz said. The call was answered by Northern 911’s ERS, but the caller had already disconnected.

“Therefore, as per procedures, the ERS initiated a transfer to police who then confirmed that they were already responding to that address.”

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