A new emergency phone number for people in need of immediate mental health or suicide prevention support will be available in Canada at the end of November 2023.
Canadians will be able to dial 988 to be connected to a free crisis management service. The Public Health Agency of Canada will decide which group will provide the service, as well as the scope of care they will provide.
This decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will bring Canada in line with the United States, which launched its 988 service last month.
But the CRTC must first move to 10-digit local dialing across the country. Currently, seven-digit local dialing remains the standard in Newfoundland and Labrador, northern Ontario and the Yellowknife area of the Northwest Territories.
The CRTC has given service providers until May 31 to implement 10-digit dialing across Canada.
Conservative MP Todd Doherty, for the riding of Cariboo—Prince George, British Columbia, who has long advocated for the creation of a hotline, applauded the decision announced Wednesday, although he said in a communicated that the program had suffered unnecessary delays.
MP Doherty says 988 service will save lives. In his opinion, for someone who is in a crisis and whose emotions are running high, it will be easier to remember a three-digit number than a 10-digit number.
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