SPSA - SaskTel Take First Step Toward New 911 Services

Released on August 6, 2024

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) and SaskTel have laid the groundwork for the next generation of 9-1-1 services. Saskatchewan is the first province to transition all primary 9-1-1 communication centers to the Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) environment, in compliance with the new federal mandate.

"This is the first step of a multi-year, multimillion-dollar project that will pave the way for deploying new technology and modernizing the province's emergency response system," Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Paul Merriman said. "This project will dramatically enhance public safety in Saskatchewan."

Once the project is complete, Saskatchewan's Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) will offer multiple ways for the public to communicate with 9-1-1.  These enhanced features will provide emergency services with more informed and safer responses. 

"The implementation of NG9-1-1 technology represents an important leap forward for Saskatchewan's emergency communication systems," said Dustin Duncan, Minister Responsible for SaskTel. "By leveraging advanced digital technologies, we can ensure that every call for help is met with the quickest and most effective response possible."

This new technology is the foundation to enable PSAPs to expand their capabilities in the coming years. In the future, the public will be able to share text messages, video and photos through the 9-1-1 system. These capabilities are not available until future years.

Funding for the project is being provided through the 9-1-1 service fee.

The SPSA and SaskTel will continue to work with secondary PSAPs in the province to ensure their technology is upgraded by the end of March 2025.

Established in 2017, the SPSA is a treasury board crown corporation responsible for wildfire management, emergency management, Sask911, SaskAlert, the Civic Addressing Registry, the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program, and fire safety.   

SaskTel is the leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider in Saskatchewan, with over $1.3 billion in annual revenue and approximately 1.4 million customer connections including nearly 670,000 wireless accesses, 242,000 wireline network accesses, 292,000 internet and data accesses, 111,000 maxTV service subscribers, and 72,000 security monitoring customers. SaskTel and its wholly owned subsidiaries offer a wide range of ICT products and services including competitive voice, data and Internet services, wireless data services, maxTV services, data centre services, cloud-based services, security monitoring services, advertising services, and international software and consulting services. SaskTel and its wholly owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 3,300 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). Visit SaskTel at www.sasktel.com.

More information on the Next-Gen 9-1-1 project can be found at www.saskpublicsafety.ca.

-30-