OTTAWA, March 31, 2015 – The Honourable Steven Blaney, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, issued the following statement:
National public alerting represents an important safety system for Canadians. Public alerts are a crucial tool to inform Canadians of life-threatening events, and help them to take action to protect themselves and their families.
Federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada have been working toward a National Public Alerting System (NPAS) for many years, in conjunction with broadcasters and other partners. In 2009, the Canada Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved Pelmorex Communications Inc. to develop and implement a National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination. This system allows provincial, territorial and federal governments to develop and issue public alerts, and broadcasters to disseminate them on television and radio. An August 2014 CRTC decision has made broadcaster dissemination of these alerts mandatory as of today.
In order to build public awareness of public alerting and its importance in emergency preparedness, Pelmorex Communications Inc. today launched a public awareness campaign. The campaign, called Alert Ready, includes radio and television public service announcements as well as a website (www.alertready.ca) that provides more information and links to provincial, territorial and federal public alerting resources.
On behalf of our Government, I applaud the launch of the Alert Ready public awareness campaign. This is a welcome step to inform Canadians about public alerting. Building awareness empowers citizens to prepare for and help to mitigate the impacts of emergencies.
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For more information, please visit the website www.publicsafety.gc.ca.
Information:
Jeremy Laurin
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
613-991-2924
Media Relations
Public Safety Canada
613-991-0657
media@ps-sp.gc.ca
