Latest news with #AlertReady
Hamilton Spectator
30-05-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
Why did I get an emergency alert for a homicide in Pickering? Teen boy charged with 1st-degree murder following ‘sadistic and cowardly' attack
Thousands of Ontario residents received a shelter-in-place alert during the Thursday afternoon commute. The alert indicated police were investigating a homicide suspect at 2125 Lynn Heights Dr., but it failed to mention the community name of Pickering. The alert appeared to create confusion on social media and included the r/askTO subreddit on . People receive this alert on Toronto-area cellphones as police hunt for a suspect in Thursday's stabbing death. Commenters reported receiving the alert in downtown Toronto and Newmarket. Others who said they received it, live more than 100-kilometres away from the impacted area, in places like Haliburton and Barrie. Alert Ready is the public-facing brand name for the National Public Alerting System administered by Public Safety Canada. Canada's emergency alerting system is intended to deliver critical alerts to Canadians through television, radio and LTE-connected and compatible wireless devices. The May 29 Pickering alert was sent by the Ontario Provincial Police on behalf of Durham Regional Police. In an email to Metroland, Durham police spokesperson Joanne McCabe said the local police service provided a suggested area to shelter in place in its alert request to the OPP. 'The area the alert extends to and what information is released, is at the discretion of the OPP,' McCabe added. 'My understanding is the reach for the alert went further than the requested area as the armed suspect was mobile and there was an imminent threat to public safety.' Metroland has also reached out to the OPP and will update this piece when we receive a reply. A shelter in place can be issued for major police events. The Government of Canada website advises people to follow the directions and advice of law enforcement and first responders. Here's what you should do if you receive a notice: In a May 30 update, Durham police said a 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after an older adult woman was stabbed to death in the Lynn Heights Drive and Fairport Road area of Pickering Thursday afternoon. The suspect was initially thought to be 13, according to a previous news release. On May 29 at 3:05 p.m., police responded to the area for an unknown trouble call. After a brief encounter, the suspect 'assaulted the victim in an unprovoked attack (by) stabbing her multiple times,' police said. The woman was outside her home on Lynn Heights Drive near Fairport Road around 3 p.m., when police say the suspect approached her. A passerby found a woman on the ground outside a residence suffering from traumatic injuries. She was transported to a Toronto-area trauma centre and pronounced dead. In a media briefing Thursday evening, Durham police Chief Peter Moreira called the suspect 'sadistic and cowardly' in the unprovoked attack, which was captured on video. 'I worked in homicide for a long time and I can tell you that an unprovoked attack like this is just unimaginable,' Moreira added. The woman was doing what 'everyone else would do at the front of their home,' according to Moreira and added she does not hold any responsibility for the attack. Following the stabbing, police said the suspect fled eastbound on Lynn Heights Drive, which prompted a massive search that included a rare shelter-in-place alert issued across the Greater Toronto Area in a bid to minimize any risk to public safety. Police said the suspect was arrested without incident Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m. The stabbing death is Durham Region's second homicide of 2025, said police. The woman's name is being withheld at the request of the family. — With files from Kristen Calis, Toronto Star Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
CBC
26-05-2025
- CBC
When your phone 'blows up' in N.B.: Who decides to hit send on alerts
Social Sharing When a jarring, screeching alarm jangled cellphones in Saint John on May 13, city police were dealing with one man dead from a fatal shooting on Carmarthen Street, three suspects caught on video, and not enough information to rule out a risk to public safety. So police asked to use the Alert Ready system to urge residents to lock their doors, shelter in place and be on the lookout for three suspects last seen on King Street East. "What we did know at the time of the alert was that at least one individual was armed with a firearm, had already used it on someone, and the location of where they went after the incident was unknown," Det. Sgt. Matt Weir explained in an email to CBC News. When the alarm did sound over cellphones, radio and TV at 12:39 p.m., it got the public's attention, and it had a wide impact. Elliott Kim said he got the warning and then called his parents to make sure they were aware. Bill Sharkey chose to stay at home on the west side, and Pamela Kendall closed her shop on Germain Street for most of the day. Some Saint John residents, including Kim and Kendall also took note that the city and the Saint John police notified the public earlier in the day. In fact, police put out their first Facebook post at 10:50 a.m. WATCH | N.B. RCMP say decision to 'blow up' phones isn't made lightly: Saint John shooting prompts questions about timing of Alert Ready 25 minutes ago Duration 3:07 The City of Saint John issued a warning after a May 13 shooting near King's Square — more than an hour before the RCMP alert went out. "I know there is a certain procedure they have to go through to do those alerts," Kendall said of the delay. CBC News decided to trace the path of how an alert gets issued, who decides, and why. Who 'owns' Alert Ready? Canada's Alert Ready emergency alert system was built by Pelmorex, a private company that operates the system as a condition of its broadcasting licence. "Pelmorex is known commonly as the Weather Network," said Mandy Maier, who wrote a research paper on Canada's public alert system as a graduate student in the Department of Communication Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission gives Pelmorex a "must-carry" cable-TV licence, guaranteeing the company's weather channel a place in basic cable packages and revenue from subscribers. But how and when to issue the alerts is decided in New Brunswick by the RCMP. Criteria for use RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Hans Ouellette said those decisions are made by the most senior officers at the operations communications centre in Fredericton. He says the following criteria must be met: There is an active threat to the public The incident could cause the public serious bodily harm or death There is sufficient descriptive detail to provide to the public Issuing the Alert could assist in minimizing potential victims Issuing the Alert could assist in obtaining more information What goes in the message? Each message must contain equivalent information in French and English, so no language group is informed ahead of the other Ouellette said. Audio messages should aim for less than a minute, and text messages should be limited to about 120 words. There's currently no capacity to carry photos. Evaluating the threat and composing the right message does take time, Ouellette said. A targeted shooting may not qualify for an alert. "If it's a targeted event, as in, you know, a person knows another person and they go out to specifically harm that individual, that is what we call a targeted event. There's no further threat to the general public. There was a threat to that individual, but there's no further threat to the public." Maier said the message has to be carefully considered so it doesn't put anyone at further risk of harm, "whether that's an officer in a precarious position or another member of the public." The message shouldn't compromise the investigation, she said, but it should give the public enough information to know what they should do or what they should look out for. "For example," Ouellette said, "if we're looking for a person or a car, we need to have a description of that car, maybe a plate, maybe a colour, maybe a type of vehicle. "We need to have a description hopefully of the individual who caused the situation. What do they look like? What were they wearing?" Who gets the alert? RCMP can also control who gets the alert, whether it's spread across the province or confined to a single cell tower. The alert will then activate for anybody who comes within what he calls the "geofence" or "hot zone." For example, a Quebec tourist driving into Saint-Léonard, while an alert is active, would get the alert on their phone as soon as they crossed into the affected area, Ouellette said. "As soon as they get into the hot zone, their phone will blow up in a sense, not blow up physically, but you know what I mean," he said. "The sounds will come, everything will happen, and they will understand what they need to do to stay safe within that zone." How many alerts are too many? Canada's alert ready system is relatively new. Maier said it officially launched in 2010 and since then, its use has greatly increased. By 2022, she said there were more broadcast and wireless immediate alerts distributed than in the previous three years combined. In 2022, of the 843 alerts distributed across Canada, 720 were weather-related, including tornado, wildfire, thunderstorm, flash flood, air quality and hurricane alerts. According to Pelmorex, the system was used in New Brunswick 13 times last year, including six tornado alerts. Maier said more research is needed to better understand whether the public develops alert fatigue. Saint John police Chief Robert Bruce says that does weigh on his mind. "If you put out a ready alert every time we have something like this, people will get numb to it, " Bruce said the day after the Saint John shooting. "It has to mean something." Bruce said it's a question of finding the right balance. "You're criticized if you put it out too early and if you put it out too late and if you don't put it out at all." City encourages signups The City of Saint John operates its own emergency alert notification system, but users have to sign up to receive them by email, text or voice message. After the fatal shooting, the city continued to issue updates online and so did the police. By 4:40 pm, the next day, the pubic was notified that all three suspects had been arrested.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass Notification Systems Market Worth Over US$ 46.43 Billion By 2033
Robust regulations, relentless disasters, smart-city investments, and AI-enabled innovations position North America as market leader, Europe as compliance-driven contender, and rapidly urbanizing, hazard-prone Asia Pacific as the fastest-growing frontier for mass notification systems globally. Chicago, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global mass notification systems market was valued at US$ 14.62 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to reach US$ 46.43 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 13.7% during the forecast period 2025–2033. In the United States, regulators remain the single biggest catalyst pushing the mass notification systems market into mainstream critical-infrastructure budgets., the Federal Emergency Management Agency has broadened access to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS); its public dashboard shows 87,000 separate warning messages disseminated during calendar-year 2023, up from 71,000 in 2022. Furthermore, 1,480 federal, state and tribal alerting authorities now hold IPAWS certificates, creating a dense foundation for commercial platform vendors to plug into. Simultaneously, Canada's Alert Ready program logged 1,216 alert activations in 2023, many related to record-breaking wildfires in Alberta and Nova Scotia. Local television override tests further proved sub-five-second dissemination latencies. Request Sample Pages: Outside North America, the European Union's European Electronic Communications Code has taken full effect in the mass notification systems market, obliging the 27 member states to implement either cell broadcast or location-based SMS for public warnings. By March 2024, the European Commission confirmed operational cell-broadcast transmitters in 350 national and regional sites, with France, Germany and Spain accounting for nearly half of the active nodes. In the Asia-Pacific region, India's National Disaster Management Authority partnered with the Centre for Development of Telematics to roll out a Common Alerting Protocol gateway covering 33 states; pilot runs in August 2023 pushed 146 million multilingual test alerts in a single afternoon, underlining the scale regulators now expect from modern platforms. Key Findings in the Mass Notification Systems Market Market Forecast (2033) US$ 46.43 billion CAGR 13.7% Largest Region (2024) North America (34.0%) By Component Solution (81.30%) By Application Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (42.20%) By Deployment Cloud (53%) By Industry Government And Defense Sector (30.80%) By Organization Large Enterprises (73.5%) By Type In-Building (50.9%) Top Drivers Nationwide emergency alert mandates expanding compliance requirements across jurisdictions rapidly. Increased multi-channel device penetration enabling ubiquitous reach for critical communications. Heightened climate disasters driving enterprise investment in resilient notification infrastructure Top Trends Nationwide emergency alert mandates expanding compliance requirements across jurisdictions rapidly. Increased multi-channel device penetration enabling ubiquitous reach for critical communications. Heightened climate disasters driving enterprise investment in resilient notification infrastructure Top Challenges Nationwide emergency alert mandates expanding compliance requirements across jurisdictions rapidly. Increased multi-channel device penetration enabling ubiquitous reach for critical communications. Heightened climate disasters driving enterprise investment in resilient notification infrastructure Enterprise Resilience Mandates Propel Cloud-Native Platforms And AI-Driven Orchestration Capabilities Corporate risk managers are no longer treating emergency communications as an optional insurance policy; instead the capability is becoming a core pillar of enterprise resilience charters, giving a boost to the mass notification systems market. According to SEC Form 10-K filings, Everbridge supported 6,530 paying customers at the close of Q1 2024 and processed 3.2 billion individual voice, text, email and mobile-app notifications during 2023. Meanwhile, private-equity-backed OnSolve reported 2.5 billion message deliveries across 190 countries last year, and rising inflows from logistics, technology and energy verticals. This volume illustrates that large employers have moved from isolated building-level alarms to globally coordinated cloud services that sit directly on top of HR systems such as Workday and SAP SuccessFactors. The value proposition extends beyond life-safety compliance. Technology manufacturer in the mass notification systems market Bosch saved an audited eight hours per incident after integrating AlertMedia with its MES dashboards, as automated shelter-in-place instructions traveled to 9,400 shop-floor smartwatches in under 12 seconds. In healthcare, AdventHealth deployed Singlewire Informacast across 57 hospitals, stitching nurse call, fire panels and metal detectors into a unified incident-response workflow; board minutes show a 39-minute reduction in average code-black cycle time, freeing operating rooms faster. These concrete operational gains are resonating with CFOs and explain why Gartner counted 550 net-new enterprise deployments in 2023 alone, with financial services, manufacturing and higher education leading in ticket volume across global helpdesk queues last year. Telecommunications Evolution Unlocks 5G, Cell Broadcast And IoT Alert Expansion Rapid advances in telecommunications are enlarging the physical reach and technical richness of the mass notification systems market. Fifth-generation (5G) standalone networks—now live in 172 countries according to the GSMA's April 2024 update—support cell broadcast throughput over 2,000 characters and rich media attachments. Verizon's Phoenix pilot in October 2023 demonstrated the capability by pushing 22,000 bilingual evacuation alerts with embedded dynamic maps to subscribers located inside a 1.6-mile polygon, all within nine seconds. The test, achieved on a public network slice, proved that broadcast alerts can coexist with latency-sensitive traffic such as autonomous shuttle telemetry without congestion. Regulators have taken notice and are drafting service-level targets accordingly. Concurrently, Internet-of-Things growth is escalating the number of machines that can both generate and receive alerts in the mass notification systems market. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that 1.1 million network-connected fire panels were operational in US commercial buildings at the end of 2023, each capable of publishing Common Alerting Protocol feeds directly to cloud dashboards. On the receive side, Apple's iOS 17 Safety Check now consumes CAP messages natively, adding roughly 1.4 billion devices to the global alertable footprint. As telcos, handset vendors and sensor manufacturers standardize around 3GPP and OASIS specifications, platform providers gain unprecedented pathways to deliver hyper-localized, multimedia warnings at population scale. Adopters forecast that sensor-to-human alert loops will contract to under three seconds by 2026. Cross-Industry Case Studies Demonstrate Tangible Risk Mitigation And Productivity Gains Concrete field deployments reveal how well-designed notification workflows translate into measurable risk mitigation. When a wind-driven grass fire threatened the outskirts of Calgary in August 2023, the city's Everbridge-powered Alberta Emergency Alert system issued 10 sequential shelter directives and evacuation orders to 1.4 million residents. Fire command later confirmed zero civilian casualties and a 25-minute improvement in perimeter clearance compared with a similarly sized 2020 event that relied on sirens and social media alone. In the United States, Penn State University's multi-channel alerting platform reached 125,000 students across 24 campuses during an active-shooter hoax in October 2023, calming rumors by countering false TikTok videos within four minutes. Industrial environments show comparable value in the mass notification systems market. Jaguar Land Rover's Solihull plant in the UK integrated OnSolve with SCADA alarms and dispatch logs. In 2023 the site recorded 17 unplanned chemical releases; in each case, digital instructions were sent to 5,200 employees in fewer than 15 seconds, and post-event audits documented 680 fewer lost production hours compared with 2022. Airlines are also leaning in: Lufthansa moved 132,000 crew members to a Singlewire backbone that ties gate changes, severe weather alerts and union negotiations into a single feed. By centralizing notifications the carrier shaved five minutes off its average aircraft turnaround time—a critical metric now that European slots are fully subscribed. Regulators cite outcomes in best-practice guidance worldwide. Competitive Landscape Shows Consolidation, Vertical Specialization, And Venture Capital Momentum As demand accelerates, the competitive dynamics of the mass notification systems market are reshaping. From January 2020 through March 2024, PitchBook logged 14 acquisitions focused on emergency communications, with larger suites buying niche specialists in acoustic sensors, multilanguage text-to-speech and threat intelligence. The most recent example arrived in February 2024, when Motorola Solutions folded Edgybees' geospatial video analytics into its Rave Mobile Safety division to enrich situational-awareness overlays. Private capital remains equally active; Crunchbase data shows venture and growth funds have injected $420 million into notification and incident-management startups since 2020, led by a $170 million Series D for AlertMedia in May 2023. Horizontal consolidation is matched by deeper vertical specialization in the mass notification systems market. Raptor Technologies now dominates K-12 education with its Raptor Alert product installed in 10,200 US schools, while Vocera (now part of Stryker) focuses on hospital nurse-call integrations covering 1,950 medical facilities. At the platform layer, differentiation centers on AI. Everbridge's Risk Intelligence Service parses 45,000 open-source data feeds and delivers pre-built impact assessments in 16 languages, whereas OnSolve's Real-Time Risk solution computes storm-track polygons every two minutes using NOAA radar. The net effect is an ecosystem where buyers can select between all-in-one suites and specialized vertical offerings, yet still expect interoperability via open CAP, WebHooks and REST APIs, driving procurement cycles that increasingly favor flexible subscription consumption models today. Technology Convergence With Security, GIS And Analytics Generates New Revenue The current innovation cycle in the mass notification systems market is characterized by convergence between mass notification, physical security and advanced analytics. Out of the top 15 video-management-software vendors ranked by Omdia, 12 had shipped documented REST or MQTT bridges to notification platforms by Q4 2024. Genetec, for instance, now allows camera analytics that detect crowd crush to trigger OnSolve alerts without operator intervention. Similarly, LenelS2's BlueDiamond mobile access control shares badge swipe anomalies with Everbridge, automatically escalating anomalies to global security operations centers when employee counts exceed maximum occupancy thresholds. This bidirectional flow of data eliminates manual phone trees and slashes mean time to acknowledge events to under one minute across benchmarked pilots. Geospatial intelligence adds another layer of value to the growth of the mass notification systems market. Esri and Google Maps Platform each launched turn-key mass-alert toolkits in 2023, enabling emergency managers to draw incident zones and instantly preview population counts, evacuation routes and ADA-compliant facilities. Analytics companies are also entering the fray: Palantir's Foundry integrates with Singlewire to correlate supply-chain disruptions against supplier density maps, helping manufacturers reroute cargo pre-emptively. Monetization extends beyond software licenses; Verizon is bundling prioritized network slices for public-safety notifications, while device makers such as Garmin embed satellite SOS subscriptions. Collectively, these linkages create new revenue touchpoints that go far beyond one-time platform fees, reinforcing the market's resilience against pure-play commoditization with insurance and infrastructure partners emerging. Deployment Challenges Include Interoperability, Alert Fatigue, Privacy And Compliance Hurdles Despite rapid growth and cloud based deployments are not without obstacles in the mass notification systems market. The International Telecommunications Union recorded 704 documented false or erroneous public alerts worldwide between 2019 and 2023, including the well-publicized Hawaii ballistic missile false alarm. Such incidents erode citizen trust and magnify so-called alert fatigue—a phenomenon the World Health Organization equates to 'warning desensitization.' Enterprise environments feel the strain as well; Ford's 2023 internal audit uncovered 220 cases where employees disabled mobile push notifications after receiving more than 15 low-priority messages in a single week. Over-communication directly undermines the primary objective of timely, actionable outreach. Several state emergency managers acknowledge diverting resources to rebuild trust campaigns. Interoperability and privacy represent additional hurdles to the growth of the mass notification systems market. Although the Common Alerting Protocol is an OASIS standard, laboratories from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute report that 77 of 210 vendor gateways tested in 2023 failed schema validation against version 1.2, often due to non-standard character encodings. Meanwhile, data-sovereignty laws are tightening. India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, effective March 2024, restricts the cross-border movement of personal contact data, compelling international vendors to stand up local hosting or cede deals to domestic rivals such as Bharat Alerts. Compliance teams must therefore navigate a patchwork of retention, encryption and audit requirements without sacrificing the split-second latency that life-critical alerts demand. Vendor consortiums are drafting conformance tests to close these gaps. Browse the Table of Contents to access and purchase individual report sections: Future Outlook Highlights Predictive, Multilingual And Contextual Notifications Dominating 2024-2028 Looking ahead, the mass notification systems market is set to pivot from reactive blast messaging toward predictive and context-aware outreach. IDC projects daily emergency and operational notifications to top 25 billion by 2028, driven largely by machine-generated events. Generative AI accelerates this shift: in January 2024, AlertMedia released an OpenAI-powered editor that drafts situation reports from sensor data and local news in under three seconds, halving dispatcher workload during complex incidents. Language coverage is expanding as well; Everbridge now ships 144 pre-translated templates spanning Amharic, Tagalog and Ukrainian, reflecting migrations triggered by 195 officially cataloged natural disasters in 2023. Micro-targeting will complement volume growth in the mass notification systems market. Qualcomm's 2024 Snapdragon Satellite spec enables device-level geotracking granularity of one square meter, allowing authorities to issue evacuation orders only to homes inside a fast-moving wildfire's projected plume. At the same time, Blue Origin and SpaceX have scheduled 52 low-earth-orbit launches through 2026 that will improve latency for satellite push alerts to under one-second round-trip. Finally, public-private partnerships are maturing; the US National Weather Service will open its HazCollect APIs to private push vendors in late 2024, promising richer meteorological overlays. Taken together, these advances suggest a market entering its most transformative phase yet, where precision, speed and inclusivity define competitive success. Industry analysts anticipate new legislative mandates that will further incentivize proactive investments worldwide by 2025. Global Mass Notification Market Major Players: Siemens Everbridge Honeywell Eaton Motorola Solutions Blackboard IBM Google BlackBerry Johnson Controls Singlewire Software Rave Mobile Safety American Signal Corporation (ASC) ATI Systems Regroup Mass Notification AlertMedia KONEXUS CrisisGo Netpresenter Omnilert Ruvna F24 Alertus Mircom Iluminar Omingo Klaxon Technologies OnSolve Crises Control Voyent Alert! Squadcast Other Prominent Players Key Segmentation: By Component: Solution Services By Deployment: On Premise Cloud Based By Application: Public Alert & Warning Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Others By Organization: Large enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) By Type: In-Building Wide Area Distributed Recipient By Industry: BFSI Energy and Utilities Education Healthcare Government and Defense Transportation and logistics Others By Region: North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America Have Questions? Reach Out Before Buying: About Astute Analytica Astute Analytica is a global market research and advisory firm providing data-driven insights across industries such as technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and more. We publish multiple reports daily, equipping businesses with the intelligence they need to navigate market trends, emerging opportunities, competitive landscapes, and technological advancements. With a team of experienced business analysts, economists, and industry experts, we deliver accurate, in-depth, and actionable research tailored to meet the strategic needs of our clients. At Astute Analytica, our clients come first, and we are committed to delivering cost-effective, high-value research solutions that drive success in an evolving marketplace. Contact Us:Astute AnalyticaPhone: +1-888 429 6757 (US Toll Free); +91-0120- 4483891 (Rest of the World)For Sales Enquiries: sales@ Follow us on: LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube CONTACT: Contact Us: Astute Analytica Phone: +1-888 429 6757 (US Toll Free); +91-0120- 4483891 (Rest of the World) For Sales Enquiries: sales@ Website: in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
08-05-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Canada tests emergency alert system to ensure public safety across provinces except Quebec and Alberta
Live Events Alert Ready Canada Canada tested its emergency alert systems Wednesday (May 7), using all the means of communication including phones, radios, and TVs to alert residents across all its provinces. The tests, conducted through Alert Ready, aimed to ensure the system's effectiveness in warning the public about potential dangers like environmental disasters or civil Ready messages were broadcast across every province and territory except Quebec and Alberta. The alerts were delivered through televisions, radios, and LTE-connected or compatible wireless devices. The timing of the test varied depending on the timings for the alerts were as follows - British Columbia 1:55 PM PDT, Manitoba 1:55 PM CDT, New Brunswick 10:55 AM ADT, Newfoundland & Labrador 10:45 AM NDT, Northwest Territories 9:55 AM MDT, Nova Scotia 1:55 PM ADT, Nunavut 2:00 PM EDT, Ontario 12:55 PM EDT, Prince Edward Island 12:55 PM ADT, Saskatchewan 1:55 PM CST, Yukon 1:55 PM Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission mandates that service providers distribute these alerts, and the public cannot opt Ontario, the test notification was accompanied by a distinctive alert tone. These alerts are designed to warn people about various emergency situations.'When an alert is heard, it is the responsibility of the public to stop, listen and respond as directed by the Government Issuer,' a message on the Alert Ready website Ontario alone, almost 240 alerts were issued the previous year. These included four civil emergencies, four AMBER alerts, and nearly 230 tornado a total of 855 notifications were used to warn the phones, radios, and TVs across British Columbia were lit up with an emergency alert Wednesday as part of a nationwide Ready Canada had on May 2, 2025, issued a press release stating that Emergency Preparedness Week (EP Week) will take place from May 5 to 11 in the country. The alerts are issued to ensure Canadians are prepared to deal with natural disasters and other major natural disasters that Canada deals with are wildfires, extreme cold, floods and earthquakes.
CTV News
08-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
B.C. prepares for natural disasters as national emergency alert system tested
A nationwide emergency alert test is seen on a cellphone in B.C. (CTV News) British Columbians got a buzz in their pockets just before 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Canada's emergency public alerting system, Alert Ready, triggered a nationwide test on most screens, radio and cellphones. The province says that to initiate an alert, a list of criteria must be met. There must be a threat to human life, the threat must be immediate, and there must be recommended actions that may save lives. Depending on the emergency, different agencies – such as the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Resilience – can send alerts. The minister, Kelly Greene, told CTV News on Wednesday that the ministry can send alerts for events such as high-risk flood and wildfire evacuations, extreme heat emergencies, and tsunami warnings. Other emergencies – such as Amber Alerts and warnings about dangerous criminals – are alerted by the RCMP. 'Getting that urgent information to people is really important, and helping them make decisions and stay safer in times of emergencies,' said Greene via Zoom. In recent months, earthquakes have shaken homes and the ground beneath many British Columbians. Although the recent quakes have been relatively small, there remains an underlying fear that the 'big one' could strike at any time. Dr. Carlson Ventura, director of UBC's Earthquake Engineering Research Facility, explained that plenty of progress has been made in preparing for a potential large earthquake striking the West Coast, including updating building codes and alert systems. 'We have come a long way in that sense, but still there is room for improvement,' said Ventura. He says ensuring buildings, bridges, and highways are up to code is crucial to minimize potential damage. The threat of earthquakes also comes with the risk of devastating tsunamis. Brett Gilley, an associate professor and expert in natural disasters at UBC, explained on Wednesday that preparing for a tsunami is challenging. Previous disastrous events – such as the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, which killed more than 230,000 people and impacted millions more – have provided insights that inform preparations in B.C. and around the world. 'We have a lot of good early warning systems. We're connected into a lot of systems in the Pacific,' said Gilley. 'We keep an eye specifically on the people on the outside coast for the big scenarios that could come anywhere from the Pacific.' CTV News asked Gilley how much time people on Vancouver Island would have to escape in the case of a large tsunami, and he said the answer varies depending on the location of the initial earthquake. If the quake happened on the other side of the Pacific Ocean from B.C.'s coast, he believes residents would have more than an hour to get away, but if it happened nearby, it would be a matter of minutes.
