Formal expectations needed for answering 911 calls: Sask. auditor reports

Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett delivers her 2024 Report - Volume 2 on Tuesday at the Saskatchewan Legislature. (Gareth Dillistone / CTV News)

In Saskatchewan, there were 600,000 calls to 911 made in 2023-24. The Provincial Emergency Communications Centre (PECC) in Prince Albert received just over 300,000 of those calls.

The PECC serves as the emergency dispatching centre for fire emergencies across the province except for Regina and Saskatoon.

The Provincial Auditor assessed the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency’s (SPSA) 911 call taking and dispatching processes for fire emergencies, focusing on the PECC.

According to Volume II of the 2024 Provincial Auditor’s Report released on Tuesday, the SPSA uses a service provider called CanOps to operate PECC, with the SPSA paying CanOps $13.7 million in 2023-24.

The purpose of the audit was to make sure people receive timely emergency responses, because lives and infrastructure are often at risk and every second counts in emergency situations.

The SPSA expects CanOps to answer 90 per cent of all 911 calls within 15 seconds and 95 per cent of all 911 calls within 20 seconds, which is in line with industry standards, according to the audit document.

Call takers are then expected to dispatch fire calls to fire departments within 90 seconds.

However, the audit says the SPSA requires timeliness targets for taking and dispatching 911 fire calls and needs to monitor whether those targets are met.

During their testing of 30 calls in May 2024, the audit found that 77 per cent of those took more than 90 seconds to be taken and dispatched.

“We found the agency has not set formal expectations for how quickly should 911 fire calls be taken and dispatched by CanOps to fire departments, and therefore does not monitor the timeliness of these services,” said Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett at a news conference on Tuesday.

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According to a summary of the call-taking, dispatch, and response steps at PECC for fire emergencies as of May 2024, if the 911 call is not answered by PECC within 90 seconds, it gets answered at the Saskatoon centre. If Saskatoon does not answer the 911 call within 60 seconds, it is then answered at the Regina centre.

As of June 2024, calls not answered by PECC within 60 seconds are sent to the Saskatoon centre. 

A summary of the call-taking, dispatch, and response steps at the Provincial Emergency Communications Centre for fire emergencies as of May 2024. (Photo source: Volume II of the 2024 Provincial Auditor’s Report)As well, the audit found that in 32 instances, CanOps staff had expired certifications.

“The lack of formal certification poses risks to effectiveness in handling emergencies,” the report read.

The audit put forth several recommendations to ensure the service responds properly to emergencies, including the expansion of IT security requirements.

“We found that the current agreement between the agency and CanOps has significant deficiencies related to IT security requirements. The agency relies on the operability of 911 IT systems as an integral part of its public safety operations,” Clemett said.

“If systems go down, an immediate impact on operations occurs. Call processing times that typically are measured in seconds can escalate to minutes, and this can mean the difference between life and death.”

As well, since the SPSA increased its funding to CanOps from $9.8 million in 2023 to $13.1 million in 2024, the audit recommended the SPSA analyze the increased administrative positions and administration fee that gets paid to CanOps.

“Otherwise, the agency might be paying for unnecessary staffing positions and providing funding to its service provider that is not used for intended purposes. Paying only for services required and monitoring that funds are spent appropriately, is good financial management and contributes to effective use of public resources,” Clemett explained.

Overall, the audit found that the SPSA had effective processes overall for call taking and dispatching of fire emergencies. The standard operating protocols and procedures were found to be up to date and appropriate.

However, according to the audit, the SPSA still needs to:

• Expand its IT security requirements and monitoring to safeguard the continued availability of its 911 systems and data
• Establish and periodically test its disaster recovery plans for critical 911 systems
• Set formal expectations and monitor how quickly 911 fire calls are taken and dispatched to fire departments
• Enhance its 911 quality assurance program to include dispatch services
• Periodically confirm whether 911 staff have appropriate training certifications
• Enhance financial oversight of the service provider’s budget and spending
• Obtain and review quarterly financial reports from its service provider to confirm appropriate expenses are incurred

The full report can be seen here, with the 911 audit listed on pages 127 to 146.