By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 12, 2013. While the federal government is looking at all your email, phone calls and social media information the Regional government wants you to know that all they are doing is sending you information in the event of a public emergency.
The federal government is apparently not opening your personal mail but that could be because no one uses the postal service anymore.
Regional Council is being asked to consider new service that will enhance the Region’s community emergency telephone notification service utilized to phone and deliver a message to designated households in the Region, in the event of an emergency.
The Region – a level of government few people understand but one we all pay for; they are considering implementing a Community Emergency Notification Service.
If this is approved, the Region will be one of the first Canadian municipalities to have access to Bell’s Reverse 9-1-1 data and the first to use geospatial coordinates (latitude and longitude) for its civic addresses in the 9-1-1 database for the purpose of emergency community notification. The report goes to Regional Council for final approval on June 19th.
Gary Carr, chair of the Regional government said: “Halton Region is committed to ensuring that we are ready to respond to any emergency situation and are able to reach as many people as possible.”
“We continue to improve our Community Emergency Notification Service (CENS) so that Halton Region remains not only the safest region in Canada, but one of the most prepared. This initiative will increase the reach of CENS from 60 per cent of Halton Region residents to more than 95 per cent. This is just one more avenue we are using to ensure that residents are informed.”
Since 2008 Halton Region has used its Community Emergency Notification Service as one of many ways to notify the public about an emergency situation. In order to improve notification capabilities and to accurately reach as many residents as possible, Bell Canada’s Enhanced Notification Service will supply a greater range of telephone numbers and addresses, including unlisted and do not call numbers. The initiative is a joint effort between the Region, Local Municipalities, Bell Canada and Telus Communications Company and will be available in November 2013.
No mention as to how much this is going to cost you.
