A group of volunteers from the Ridge Meadows RCMP detachment received a special tour of the E-Comm centre in Vancouver.

The group of 23 visited the Lower Mainland Emergency Communications Centre to learn more about the 911 and the non-emergency operations.

Every 911 caller is directed to E-Comm in 25 regional districts across British Columbia. The centre handles more than two million 911 calls a year – about 99 per cent of the province’s 911 call volume.

The centre also provides dispatch service for police and fire departments, and according to E-Comm 9-1-1 website, “operates the largest multi‐jurisdictional, tri‐service wide‐area radio network in the province used by police, fire and ambulance personnel throughout Metro Vancouver and parts of the Fraser Valley”.

E-Comm was established in 1997 under the provincial Emergency Communications Corporations Act. It was the result of rioting following the Vancouver Canucks’ 1994 Stanley Cup run. When the Canucks lost in the seventh game people quickly took to the streets where vandalizing and looting took place.

The Vancouver police radio system was unable to handle the amount of calls that day and paramedics, firefighters, and police found themselves in danger as their radio systems were not compatible.

E-Comm is owned by the municipalities and the public safety agencies it serves.

For more information go to ecomm911.ca.

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