New emergency-warning system launches in Canada
theweathernetwork.com
Monday, April 6, 2015, 9:00 AM - Canadians now have a better way to keep safe with a new, faster national-emergency alert system.
This system delivers immediate warnings when there’s imminent danger from extreme weather, natural disasters, biohazards, terrorist threats and other life-threatening events.
The new system, called Alert Ready, allows government agencies across Canada to issue public-safety messages to audiences on television and radio easier and quicker than before.
Visit AlertReady.ca for information on the types of alerts Canadians receive, examples of alert notifications, and helpful links to emergency-preparedness resources.
“The launch of the Alert Ready public awareness campaign is a welcome step to inform Canadians about public alerting,” said Steven Blaney, Canada's minister of public safety and emergency preparedness. “Building awareness empowers citizens to prepare for and help to mitigate the impacts of emergencies.”
Alert Ready was developed in partnership with federal, provincial and territorial emergency management officials, Environment Canada and the broadcast industry. The distribution infrastructure is operated by Pelmorex Media Inc., the parent company of The Weather Network and MétéoMédia. All government-authorized broadcasters must carry Alert Ready warning, as of March 31, 2015. The infrastructure for the system has been in place since 2010, but was previously voluntary for broadcasters to carry.
“Alert Ready benefits all Canadians by giving everyone immediate exposure to important, life-saving information, allowing them to take action and protect themselves, their families and property,” said Paul Temple, senior vice-president of regulatory and strategic affairs for Pelmorex Media Inc. “Canada’s broadcast industry has worked together with the federal, provincial and territorial governments to ensure alerts about potentially life-threatening events are quickly delivered to affected communities,” he said. Alerts “will also include instructions as to what the public should be doing.”
Those messages are distributed across Canada by cable and satellite companies, radio stations, over-the-air television stations and video-on-demand services. Online you can check to see if there are current alerts in your area by visiting the alerts page on theweathernetwork.com. In addition, you can also receive alerts to your mobile phone ($3.00/month, per province) by visiting this link to sign up.
