Bram Abramson to the National Emergency Number Association ON

Kingston, Ontario
May 6, 2026

Bram Abramson, Commissioner for Ontario
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Check against delivery

Thank you for the invitation to speak today and for that warm welcome. It’s a pleasure to be in Kingston on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee Confederacy. I thank them and pay respect to their Elders.

And it is a pleasure to meet again with a community that was so welcoming when I last attended this conference in 2024. If it is your first time here, or we simply haven’t met yet, don’t hesitate to come say hello, and to say hello to Suneil Kanjeekal from the CRTC, who has joined me here in Kingston. Suneil is our director of dispute resolution and regulatory implementation within the CRTC’s telecommunications branch.

I appreciate the dialogue we have had in the past. On a personal note, while I have always had some involvement in the emergency communications area, my service as CRTC Commissioner has allowed me to visit primary and secondary PSAPs across Ontario, from Hamilton to Ottawa to Sudbury to Toronto and back again. I have paid attention to some of NENA’s promotional material and completed my Emergency Number Professional designation. I have gotten a better understanding of how hard you work and the challenges you face. Your work has made a tremendous impression on me.

As I did in 2024, I would like to open things up for questions and answers. But before that, I would like to speak for a bit on what has been happening at the CRTC in the time since we last met, the ongoing work we have together, as well as a few other CRTC initiatives that have an impact on Canada’s telecommunications networks and, by extension, the emergency services ecosystem.

It seems finally to be getting warmer after a pretty snowy winter. Spring is traditionally a time of rebirth – green grass, sunny skies, and new beginnings. This community, of course, is nearing such a new beginning.

Transition to NG9-1-1

As you are well aware, March 31, 2027 is less than a year away. That means that when we see each other for NENA Ontario Conference next year, network providers will have decommissioned their regulated Enhanced 9-1-1 networks. In less than a year, all public safety answering points (PSAPs) will be expected to have completed the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 networks.

This is a message I have repeated in front of Ontario’s municipalities, and it is one that you know all too well: with NG9-1-1, Canadians will have the infrastructure and ability to connect in new ways with 9-1-1 operators. Ways that keep pace with how the public uses technology, starting with text messaging and video calls.

A successful transition will be welcome news for many Canadians and will also ratchet expectations higher. As a father to three teenagers, I experience every day first-hand how fewer and fewer Canadians are willing to use their phones for voice communications. With multiple ways to contact emergency services and more ways for information to get dispatched from and about your callers, PSAPs should be able to orchestrate emergency services easier, faster, and to more Canadians with both visible and invisible disabilities, saving seconds and minutes in critical times of need.

I am keenly aware that in telling you this I am, as the British say, carrying coals to Newcastle. You are here because you are engaged with these issues and have a workplace that supports that engagement. Many of you have already made the switch and gone live with NG9-1-1. Nearly 60% of Ontario’s population is already being served by NG9-1-1. And I look forward to next year when, hopefully, we are at 100% or very near to it.

For our part in the 9-1-1 ecosystem, the CRTC has a narrow role exercising regulatory oversight over how service providers let Canadians contact one of your PSAPs. We also are responsible for the target date for NG9-1-1 transition.

When I was here in 2024, the deadline for the NG9-1-1 transition was also looming, then in March 2025. So there’s a bit of a rolling theme.

Well, it’s got to stop rolling. In 2024 I told you the extension we granted was being considered, but a decision had yet to be made. In the process of making that decision we heard from Chiefs of Service (Chiefs of Police and other emergency services) who told us a delay was necessary to ensure the system continued to work reliably. So, soon after we met, the CRTC formally pushed the deadline two years to give provinces and municipalities more time to make the transition. Once again, the deadline is now March 31, 2027. There are no plans to extend that deadline further.

For those of you still working hard to meet that target date, I know that may not be welcome news. We recognize that this transition has been more difficult for some than for others. We know the transition has not been slowed for lack of trying.

Many of you have been working tirelessly with your partners in emergency services, with municipalities and regional and local authorities, and with vendors. You have been trying to find adequate funding, upgrade equipment and software as required, and train your staff to be ready for the transition. As I said last time, as your regional Commissioner, I stand by ready to help and to take this message to your local, municipal, and other authorities.

Working together to deliver for Canadians

So for those of you still trying to get to where you need to be for next March, my message continues to be: let’s work together. And I am not only speaking about working with the CRTC, but everyone in this room.

I think many Canadians don’t realize that 9-1-1 services are provided through a system that requires multiple entities, from PSAPs to first responders to service providers and others, all working together to ensure Canadians get help in their hour of need. It requires working across jurisdictions – municipal, local and regional – and at times across technological barriers. It requires Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers acting as ESInets to work tirelessly. It has demanded significant efforts from vendors. Geomatics experts have been pressed into service. Your municipal councils are heavily involved. That all of this coordination and cooperation occurs behind the scenes to provide Canadians seamless emergency services is a testament to the hard work of all involved.

A huge, system-wide transition like NG9-1-1 requires the same type of effort in order to get us across the finish line. Conferences like this one are an opportunity to discuss common problems and learn best practices from one another. What strategies from one PSAP’s successful transition can be applied to those still working toward it? What common problems do some jurisdictions face? And are there ways they can be tackled together?

The transition to NG9-1-1 is, just like the emergency services it provides, a coordinated effort. In order to make this transition a success, everyone has to be on board, and I know we can learn a great deal from one another this week.

The CRTC may have set the deadline, but much of that work – and the milestones to making the transition a success – are entirely yours. And, when the transition is complete, I hope you will be proud of that success.

Progress through the ESWG

On that note, I want to take a moment to again recognize the efforts of one group in particular that many here today take part in. That, of course, is the Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG). The ESWG’s work has been instrumental in pushing forward the transition to NG9-1-1 and addressing many other issues affecting 9-1-1 services in Canada.

This work is something most ESWG members have taken on in addition to their normal duties. In particular, I want to thank co-chairs Ryan Antsey and Nicolas Pierre for their tireless efforts in driving that work forward. The group has set standards for the transition and 9-1-1 services more broadly, and helped to guide the implementation of various technical and operational elements.

For example, the ESWG helped set up the framework and architecture for the upcoming transition, as well as requesting that we extend the original deadline when it became clear that was necessary.

The ESWG was also responsible for the PSAP Contingency Planning Framework, which was finalized in March and is available on our website. The Framework provides practical guidance for PSAPs and local authorities that have not yet transitioned, including clear timelines, key milestones, and instructions for PSAPs who may be at risk of missing next year’s deadline, including where they want their constituents' 9-1-1 calls to be routed if they cannot transition in time.

There are some hard dates on that Contingency Planning Framework. Like February 8, 2027, the last possible completion deadline for ESInet testing. Like February 27, 2027, for completing end-user training. Like March 12, 2027, for go-live. Like December 31^st of this year, which is 90 days before the last date for a contingency plan to be enacted. December 31^st is therefore the date by which PSAPs must have notified their network provider that they need to move to a contingency plan.

ESWG has helped provide clarity on issues like network resilience, handling emergency services during outages, the rollout of device-based location, and many other issues. At the heart of their work is a goal we all share: that no 9-1-1 call goes unanswered. I can confidently say that, without the ESWG, we would not be where we are today, in terms of current emergency services delivery or the NG9-1-1 transition. So, thank you.

Improving coverage and network resiliency

I would also like to note a few other ways in which the CRTC is working to improve the networks upon which 9-1-1 services rely.

We know, for instance, that there are still far too many reports of dead spots and places where calls drop unexpectedly across Canada. We have an ongoing proceeding to help us develop a standardized, evidence-based methodology for mobile coverage reporting that will help us to identify and address gaps in coverage. 

Our decision last September on telco outage notification requirements will ensure better coordination between service providers and public authorities in the event of a telecom outage. We are also consulting on ways we can improve customer awareness of outages and the speed at which services are restored.

In the meantime, we continue to administer a Broadband Fund that redistributes a proportion of telecom industry revenues to expand Internet and mobile networks to underserved areas. Of more than $770 million redistributed in 326 communities in Canada, more than half the projects we have funded have been to independent providers. 81% of the projects we have funded have been for project amounts below $10 million.

This is a targeted funding program that can accommodate smaller-scale projects, whose fourth call for funding opened in early April and will remain open through to mid-August. We have been working to streamline the application process to make it easier to apply, to ensure regions that lack service and have limited resources can still get the help they need. If you are in a region that needs better coverage, do make sure that telcos that serve your region or would like to are aware of this opportunity.

Conclusion

You don’t need me to tell you that the future is, as always, just around the corner. The NG9-1-1 transition is just around the corner, as it has been for a while now. The talk about AI is only growing, and like many I have been keenly following the work that some of you have undertaken with tools on non-emergency lines to help more calls get answered more quickly.

So let me close today by going back to where I began, and the reason we are all here today.

At the CRTC, we recognize the efforts that everyone here is making to complete the transition to NG9-1-1. As you face down the remaining challenges and obstacles to make that goal a reality, I want you to know that we are here to work with you. Whether it is through the ESWG or simply by picking up the phone and giving us a call, our door is always open, especially for matters that fall on our side of the demarcation between telecom services and PSAP services.

So talk to us. Let us know your issues and your problems. While we are only one small part of the equation, we are happy to assist you in any way we can.

Thank you again, and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.