Kinew ‘open to everything’ after Bell’s 911 failures

Premier Wab Kinew signalled Tuesday he’s open to all potential options, including switching 911 providers, if feasible, after a series of outages in Manitoba.

Kinew, who’s spoken to Bell Canada CEO Mirko Bibic and Prime Minister Mark Carney about Manitoba’s 911 service, said the government and the telecom continue to have a “back and forth.”

“At this stage, we’re open to everything,” Kinew said of potential steps to ensure the service is reliable. “The No. 1, I think, baseline is that when you dial 911, you’re going to get through to the help you need, whether that’s an ambulance or fire truck or police.”

Kinew said he’s looking forward to receiving Bell’s draft report to learn the cause of the most recent outage, which occurred Thursday and affected five other provinces where the telecom provides 911 service.

“I think there’s probably some important lessons here as we’re part of the current 911 system and we look ahead to next-gen 911,” Kinew said. “The fact that this impacted other parts of the country will probably offer us some lessons, too.”

Bell executives continue to be in contact with the premier’s office regarding Thursday’s outage, company spokesperson Elise von Scheel said.

Mirabella Salem, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the industry’s federal regulator, said changing a 911 network provider “would require co-ordination among all levels of government, call centres and telecommunications providers.”

Bell previously said an issue with its next-generation 911 network was detected at 2:13 a.m., with service restored at 3:40 a.m. Backup systems were used.

Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were affected. An investigation into the cause is underway, von Scheel said.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the industry’s federal regulator, gave Montreal-based Bell two weeks to provide a report explaining the cause, steps taken to resolve the outage, the number of callers who were affected, and plans to prevent similar problems, which is standard after such a disruption.

Von Scheel said further details will be available on or around Oct. 1 in Bell’s report to the CRTC. The report will be published on the regulator’s website.

Kinew previously said he raised concerns with Carney and Bibic after a July 22 outage affected all of Manitoba except Winnipeg for almost four hours.

Afterward, Bell’s report to the CRTC said 84 callers could not get through. The report cited three independent failures: one in which details were redacted; a third-party fibre optic cable cut that occurred before the first problem was resolved; and a backup system that did not automatically reroute calls.

In a separate report, Bell told the CRTC an April 28 outage, which lasted 4 1/2 hours, was caused by a power failure, affecting 53 callers outside Winnipeg. Both reports said steps were taken to prevent similar outages.

In March 2025, relatives of Fisher Branch man, who were Telus customers, were unable to connect with 911 when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Telus and Bell traded blame afterward.

Bell has suggested next-generation 911 service will be more reliable than the “legacy architecture” of Manitoba’s current system.

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The telecom expects Manitoba’s public safety answering points, or 911 communications centres, to move to the new system by the end of the year, ahead of the CRTC’s March 31, 2027, deadline.

The CRTC has said next-generation 911 will provide quicker and more accessible communication during emergencies. The new system, when in effect, will allow people to send text messages, photos and videos, or medical information to first responders.

In Canada, 911 service is provided by the legacy phone provider in each region. Manitoba’s service was once provided by MTS, a Crown corporation until it was privatized by the Filmon government in 1996. Bell completed a takeover in 2017.

Telus provides 911 service in B.C. and Alberta. SaskTel, a Crown corporation, provides the equipment for Saskatchewan’s service.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.