9 Alberta Emergency Alerts in a row were a testing 'glitch': province

The sending of several emergency alert notifications to Albertans' phones, televisions and radios Wednesday afternoon was a testing "glitch," the province's public safety minister says.

The province conducts annual testing of the Alberta Emergency Alert system, which broadcasts messages about life-threatening emergencies like wildfires, floods or Amber Alerts.

On March 1 at 1:55 p.m., one alert was scheduled to be sent out as a test.

According to the emergency notification system archive, nine alerts were sent between 1:55 p.m. and 2:01 p.m. 

Mike Ellis, public safety and emergency services minister, said in a statement that the province was testing a new national system.

"A glitch caused multiple test alert messages to be distributed to compatible devices," Ellis explained.

"All partners in the National Public Alerting System are working with the Alberta Public Alerting team to identify and resolve the issue that caused these repeat alerts," he added.

The minister apologized for the disruption the test alerts caused.

"Incidents like the one that occurred are exactly why we conduct testing on the Alert System," he said. "We need to ensure that the system is working as intended during an actual emergency to protect Albertans."