The Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been aware for at least ten years of the problems of access to emergency services in French to which Internet telephony users are exposed.
The Union of Public Employees of Canada (CUPE) had alerted it to the problem in a brief filed in March 2013, of which The duty got a copy.
Subscribers to an Internet telephony provider “are at a disadvantage”, wrote the union which represents, in particular, hundreds of employees of 911 services.
Their “ways of doing things” adds “an intermediary (who often speaks approximate French), which slows down the response from front-line services”.
These remarks were part of a submissions document filed as part of a CRTC consultation on 911 services.
Monday, The duty told the story of an IP telephony user from Saint-Jean-Port-Joli who was unable to make himself understood in French when he called 911 for an emergency.
Remember that in Canada, regulation of IP telephony is the responsibility of the Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
Ottawa promises to correct the situation
Questioned in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the Trudeau government has formally committed to solving the problem. “This is unacceptable and we will take action to correct the situation,” said the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne.
The government had to explain itself in this matter, at the request of Conservative MP Joël Godin. “How can the Prime Minister explain the CRTC’s failure to provide security and access to 911 service in both official languages? he had launched.
Mr. Champagne also replied that Canadians “deserve, from telecommunications service providers, and in particular when they call 911, to be able, rightly, to have an answer in French or in English, in the two official languages in the country”.
Asked Tuesday to say what he had accomplished in the file for ten years, the CRTC was not able to provide an answer. In an exchange prior to the revelations about the notice made in 2013, he replied that he was committed “to ensuring that all Canadians have access to telecommunications services in the official language of their choice, including 911”. “If anyone encounters obstacles in this regard, they are invited to inform the Council,” added his spokesperson.
On Tuesday, the question also rebounded during question period in Quebec, at the National Assembly. The Parti Québécois tabled a motion calling for a ban on any transfer of 911 calls “to call centers located outside Quebec”. The motion also called on the National Assembly to “require that all responders called to handle 911 emergency calls in Quebec be able to respond quickly, effectively and clearly in French. »
It was adopted unanimously and must be sent to the CRTC.
With Boris Proulx