Desperate calls to 911 thwarted by gap in rural service

Winnipeg Free Press

27-05-2025

Camille and Franz Potucek heard a woman frantically screaming when they walked into an Elm Creek bakery before they planned to play a round of golf in the southern Manitoba community last week.
While Franz tried to free the baker, whose hand was trapped in a machine at Tsomie Foods, Camille twice tried to call 911 using her cellphone.
'I didn't get any reception. I dialed 911 and pressed call, and it didn't ring,' Potucek said. 'I went outside and got the same thing.'
Potucek, 81, flagged down a passing driver, who couldn't get through to 911 because he didn't have a signal, she said.
'I've never been in such a state of panic,' Potucek said.
The experience last Thursday left the Winnipeg woman concerned about gaps in cellphone reception in rural or remote areas.
The incident happened while Manitoba's 911 network is under scrutiny, after 55-year-old Fisher Branch-area resident Dean Switzer suffered a fatal heart attack March 23.
His loved ones couldn't get through to a 911 communications centre due to a technical problem that affected Telus customers, the legislature was told.
Poor or spotty cell reception, regardless of the mobile provider, has been a concern for years in Elm Creek, located about 60 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of Grey.
It appeared Potucek, a Rogers customer, was in a spot where no telecom had coverage. The system is set up so that 911 calls go through on any mobile network, even a competitor's, when available.
'In this instance, our customer was unable to connect to any wireless network and that's why improving connectivity in rural communities is an important priority for all wireless service providers,' a Rogers spokesperson said in a statement. 'We continue to review and invest in new network technologies to help connect Canadians in rural and remote areas.'
A spokesperson for Bell, Manitoba's 911 network provider, said the 911 service and a communications centre were 'fully operational' at the time.
'To access 911 from a mobile device, the device must be within range of a functioning wireless network,' the spokesperson said in a statement. 'If the customer in question did not have reception at the time, they would not have been able to connect to any service, including 911 services.'
Fire Chief Anton Borst said cell reception has been poor in the Elm Creek area for as long as he can remember.
The problem affects customers of multiple mobile networks, he said.
'The main issue is it's very variable and very spotty,' Borst said. 'In some areas, it's very good. In and around town, it's very poor in a lot of areas.'
Some residents or businesses use signal boosters to improve coverage, he noted.
Borst said rural firefighters are often dispatched to emergencies via calls to their cellphones or smartphone app notifications.
'It's hard for a lot of members in (Elm Creek). They sometimes miss a call because they don't have cell service,' he said. 'From that perspective, it is a concern. I would like to see it repaired.'
In 2019, then-reeve Ray Franzmann told the Free Press cell service was 'sporadic' and 'not very reliable' in most of the municipality's towns.
'I didn't get any reception. I dialed 911 and pressed call, and it didn't ring.'–Camille Potucek
Progressive Conservative MLA Lauren Stone, whose Midland constituency includes Elm Creek, said she regularly hears concerns from constituents.
'Spotty cell service and cell reception across my constituency continues to be an ongoing problem. The NDP needs to find solutions to this ongoing issue,' said Stone, who was not an MLA when the Tories were last in government. 'This is obviously a safety concern, especially right now with the concerns around 911 in rural and remote areas.'
Caedmon Malowany, a spokesman for Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz, said Moroz was 'very concerned' when he learned about Potucek's situation.
'These types of issues around cell coverage in rural Manitoba are part of a wider conversation that the minister is already having with the federal government, and is an important part of the issues being dealt with by the newly formed technology and innovation task force,' Malowany said.
Elm Creek is home to more than 400 people, as of the 2021 census. It is located at the junction of highways and 2 and 13, where local segments had combined annual average daily traffic counts of more than 4,000 vehicles in 2023, as per Manitoba government data.
The Potuceks didn't know the extent of the woman's injuries as of Tuesday. The bakery's owner-operator could not be reached for comment.
'I can't imagine the fear she was going through. I hope she is OK,' Potucek said.
The woman was freed when two men from a nearby machine shop, after being alerted by Potucek's 85-year-old husband, used a wrench to loosen part of the machine, which appeared to be a mixer, Potucek said.
She said the passerby drove the woman to a hospital. Potucek praised the people who helped the woman.
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'I am just thankful we were there for her when she needed help,' she said.
The Manitoba government, meanwhile, asked Canada's telecoms regulator to order Telus to release redacted portions of a public report into the 911 outage that affected its customers from March 22 to 24.
Telus sent two reports to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission: a confidential version and an abridged public version that redacted the cause of the outage.
The CRTC is 'carefully' reviewing the report, spokeswoman Megan MacLean said Tuesday.
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Chris KitchingReporter
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.
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