Telecom - Secretary General Letter addressed to the Distribution List
Ottawa, 28 February 2023
Our reference: 8662-A197-202300820
BY EMAIL
To: Distribution List
Re: Government of Alberta intention to issue an out-of-schedule visible public alert test on 1 March 2023
The Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) has decided to convert the Alberta Emergency Alerting System to the National Public Alerting System (NPAS) on 1 March 2023. In a letter of 25 January 2023, the AEMA notified the Commission of its plans to perform a visible public alert test on 1 March 2023 to test the system following the transition to the NPAS.
The Commission sought comments on the AEMA’s plan from Pelmorex Weather Networks (Television) Inc. (Pelmorex), as the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) System administrator, affected Wireless Service Providers (WSPs), and affected broadcasting undertakings. The Commission notes that Pelmorex and Rogers Communications Inc. (Rogers) submitted comments.
By way of this letter, the Commission acknowledges the AEMA’s plan to issue an out-of-schedule visible public alert test on 1 March 2023. The Commission encourages to Pelmorex and affected WSPs and broadcasting undertakings to participate in the AEMA planned visible public alert test over the NPAS on 1 March 2023.
The Commission is of the view that visible test alerts are an important component of the NPAS. They help to ensure the effectiveness of the NPAS in protecting Canadians. They also help to ensure that Canadians are aware and have confidence in the public alerting system. The Commission is concerned that visible public alert tests that are inconsistent between WSPs and broadcasters, or are too frequent or too infrequent, can undermine these goals. Thus, the Commission is of the view that the issuance of visible public alert tests, in an efficient manner designed to achieve the policy goals, requires the cooperation and participation of alert issuers, the operator of the NAAD system, and WSPs and broadcasting undertakings. These stakeholders are to collaborate using the appropriate mechanisms, such as through the Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) body Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM), to achieve these goals.
The Commission also draws the AEMA’s attention to Rogers’ submissions, which contain requests regarding the implementation of the planned visible public alert test, for instance the timing of the issuance of the test alert.
Yours sincerely,
Claude Doucet
Secretary General
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