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A capture of the alert sent Wednesday afternoon after a province-wide 911 service disruption.<\/p>\n
The Brandon Police Service announced it was affected by a 911 outage shortly after 1 p.m. Bell sent a notice shortly after 4:10 p.m. to announce 911 service had been restored after a \u201cthird-party cable cut\u201d caused the outage.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth wireless and wireline emergency call services are available again and the affected public safety answering point in Brandon is reconnected,\u201d the update said. \u201cWe thank Manitobans for their patience as we work to address the damaged infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank Manitobans for their patience as we work to address the damaged infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell did not say where in Manitoba the fibre cut occurred, nor did it identify the \u201cthird party\u201d or how the problem was fixed. It was not known how many callers were unable to get through to 911.<\/p>\n
Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the outage will lead to discussions about the need for redundancy, and the upcoming launch of a next generation 911 network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should be much higher redundancy on something as important as 911,\u201d he said. \u201cLocally, with our own 911 (communications) facility, we have lots of redundancy. We have a whole second operation that we could go to if something happened, but there was nothing we could do with that (911 service) down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fawcett said the outage was a concern for municipalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it is for Bell as well. Hopefully, they will be bringing to the table, \u2018Here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be doing to try to make sure we have security and redundancy,\u2019 because it\u2019s a very important service,\u201d Fawcett said.<\/p>\n
Bell had advised Manitobans to call their local police, fire or ambulance department\u2019s direct 10-digit phone number or go directly to the nearest fire station, police station, or hospital emergency room if they were unable to get through to 911.<\/p>\n
The RCMP told people to call its 24-7 emergency line if 911 wasn\u2019t available. Shared Health, which operates ambulance service in rural Manitoba, told people to call the Manitoba Transportation Co-ordination Centre if they couldn\u2019t get through to 911.<\/p>\n
An emergency notification \u2014 similar to those issued during tornado warnings or Amber Alerts \u2014 was sent to some Manitoba cellphones shortly before 2:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Brandon\u2019s public safety answering point is one of two in Manitoba. The other is in Winnipeg. Winnipeg\u2019s police, fire and paramedic services were not affected by the outage.<\/p>\n
Brandon\u2019s emergency services were notified \u201cquickly\u201d after the outage began, Fawcett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great concern. I imagine Bell is extremely concerned about it, and so are we,\u201d he said before service was restored. \u201cPeople really need 911. It\u2019s an important service, so we do want to have it on at all times. We do want to make sure it\u2019s up and running as fast as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police services, fire departments, health authorities and municipalities published advisories on social media to make residents aware of the outage and alternative ways to seek help.<\/p>\n
Gimli fire Chief Mike Chudd published a post on the department\u2019s Facebook page encouraging people to report fires or vehicle collisions by calling a local number until 911 service resumed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople that are in need of assistance, if they\u2019re trying to call 911 because word hasn\u2019t gotten out that could be a bit of an issue,\u201d he told the Free Press shortly after the outage was reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always concerning when you have emergency services being affected, where response time means everything and it could be a matter of life and limb at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cResponse time means everything and it could be a matter of life and limb at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Messages were sent to thousands of residents who signed up for an emergency notification system through the Rural Municipality of Gimli, Chudd said.<\/p>\n Bell notified the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission about the outage, which is required, said CRTC spokeswoman Mirabella Salem.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CRTC expects an update once the issue has been resolved and Bell will be required to provide a post-outage report within 14 days of resolution,\u201d Salem wrote in an email.<\/p>\n Smaller 911 outages have occurred in Manitoba in the last couple of years.<\/p>\n More than 50 people couldn\u2019t get through because of a Bell MTS service outage in April, the company reported to the CRTC, the national telecoms regulator. Bell said a power failure and surveillance tools that didn\u2019t trigger alarms were to blame for that outage.<\/p>\n The family of Fisher Branch resident Dean Switzer, 55, was unable to get through to 911 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in March 2025. They were unaware their Telus service was not working.<\/p>\n Telus blamed a Bell equipment failure. Bell said the issue stemmed from the Telus side of the network.<\/p>\n Manitoba Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz criticized Bell and its communication with Manitobans and the provincial government after past outages.<\/p>\n \u201cOn this particular occasion, they did in fact contact my office right away and have made us aware of the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Moroz wants Bell to be transparent about causes of 911 outages and the steps taken to try to prevent them from happening again.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \u201cThere have been entirely too many of these incidents in the last number of months, and we\u2019re deeply concerned about it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re really anxious to ensure Manitobans can be confident 911 service is there when they need it.\u201d<\/p>\n Telecoms are federally regulated, and the province has no authority over them to force things to happen, Moroz said.<\/p>\n In June, Bell said Manitoba will be ready to switch to a modern, next generation 911 network<\/a> by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n All emergency call centres must be ready to provide next generation 911 voice and text messaging services by the end of March 2027 as directed by the CRTC.<\/p>\n chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Chris Kitching Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSEAN KILPATRICK \/ THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
\nBell has said it will switch its networks in Manitoba to a modern, next-generation 911 service by the end of this year. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Reporter
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