Non-profit group takes over provincial 911 centre
A non-profit organization has been selected to take over management of the Provincial Emergency Communications Centre.
The communications centre, located near Prince Albert, provides 911 services for the entire province with the exceptions of Regina and Saskatoon. On Wednesday, the province announced that CanOps, a Saskatchewan-based non-profit focused on public safety, will be taking over management of the centre after a public tendering process was held in the spring.
Duane McKay, Saskatchewan’s assistant deputy minister for public safety, said the centre was previously managed by the City of Prince Albert and Prince Albert Police. The management change will not affect staffing at the centre, he noted, and citizens calling 911 will not notice any changes in service.
“One of the conditions we insisted on in the process it went through was that all staff would remain with the organization,” McKay told paNOW. “Performance standards, funding models, budgets, all that stuff would still come back to the province to ensure that it’s meeting its requirements.”