Unable to accelerate the implementation of its emergency communication network, Quebec must resign itself to paying consultants $1000/h and allow the SQ to spend millions more to keep the old parallel technology alive.
• Read also: The Ministry of Health tired of the failures of the RENIR
The Quebec government is still bogged down in spending with the hope of deploying its Integrated Emergency Radiocommunication Network (RENIR):
- the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital must use consulting services at $1,000 per hour for three years ($18 million) to meet the expectations of the authorities and its customers;
- the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) must sign a new over-the-counter contract for $30 million with Bell and Telus to keep alive until 2025 the old parallel communication network which reached the end of its useful life in 2016.
The police must always use it, because the RENIR is only deployed at 44% on the territory.
In October 2020, the Auditor General also tabled a damning report on the RENIR.
She exposes the dependence of Quebec with regard to the only supplier Motorola which pocketed 232 M$.
But still, more than 16 years after its start, the project has already cost more than a billion $ in Quebec even if 78% of the emergency services shun the service.
The government promised to fix the problems. A decree was to be issued in September 2021 to force all emergency services to pay for RENIR services.
However, this decree will not exist as long as RENIR is not 100% functional and effective, confirmed in an interview the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire.
The right technology, he says
For this project, the Minister does not want to be judged for the mistakes of the past, but on the decisions he has made for this project since he took office.
He argues that the Sûreté du Québec is now satisfied and has confidence in RENIR, because of the improvements that have been incorporated.
“We have a solution now for urban areas […] we have state-of-the-art terminals,” he says.
“Is it costing us too much compared to what we should have paid? Yes. But I have a contract signed in 2017 with Motorola, until 2027.
Thus, the Minister persists and signs: RENIR is the right technology.
He also claims that he cannot work miracles. “We cannot deploy the project everywhere at the same time. We have capacity X, ”he pleads, hoping that the government will have completed the network by 2025.
It is for this reason that expensive contracts still have to be signed. In addition, he says that the worldwide shortage of computer components is slowing down the acquisition of equipment and harming the project.
what RETURN?
A system that allows emergency services to communicate during events, for example police and ambulance radios. The project started in 2008 was to cost $144 million and be active everywhere in 2014. Due to failures, the project has now exceeded one billion and is only 44% implemented at the SQ.
Two new expenditure components for RENIR until 2025
◆ $18 million contract for consultants to:
- improve cybersecurity
- to upgrade the system
- to manage disuse
- to supply the electrical system of the RENIR sites
◆ New $30 million contract for the SQ to:
- to keep alive the National Integrated Radiocommunication Network, an old parallel and obsolete system for the SQ.
Sources: Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital and SEAO