The province announced new legislation this week, called the Emergency 911 Act, which would not only introduce mandatory payments for call centres from all phone customers, and punish people who call the emergency line, without an emergency.
According to the province, the proposed act would introduce a 44 cent charge for wireless phone customers, a cost currently only paid by landline customers, and implement fines for people who call 911 without an emergency.
It’s estimated there are 2.7 million cell phone subscribers in Alberta – and the province said 70 percent of the calls 911 operators receive are from cell phones.
“911 call centres used to get a portion of their funding from a fee on landlines,” Associated Municipal Affairs Minister Greg Weadick said in a press release. “This is declining as more and more Albertans are opting for cellphones instead of landlines, and many of the current challenges facing call centres directly relate to the millions of cellphone subscriptions in this province.
“So it only makes sense that cellphone users contribute to the cost of 911 the same as landline users.”
The legislation would also address the high number of errant calls dispatchers receive regularly – with fines.
At the end of February, Edmonton police said about 60 percent of the calls received by 911 operators are not emergencies, and can tie up the phone lines from someone in need of help.
In 2012, a total of 379,917 calls were made to 911, of those, 244,929 (64 percent) were not emergencies.
While fines are planned under the legislation, the province said accidentally calling 911, or ‘pocket-dialing’ would not result in a fine.
The province said the Emergency 911 Act would also help support 911 call centres while they work to implement new technology, such as GPS and texting, into their operations.
