Public Safety looking at changing emergency alert funding: gov’t docs

Public Safety Canada is considering implementing a “more sustainable funding approach” for Canada’s emergency alert system, according to documents obtained through the access to information system. Briefing notes for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair noted that the CRTC had expressed concerns the current system may not be the best funding method. Currently, the National Public Alerting System is administered by Pelmorex Corp., and funded through the fees it collects from the mandatory distribution of its Weather Network and Meteo Media channels on basic TV packages. “As such, with the current Pelmorex licence expiring in 2023, Public Safety Canada will be exploring various funding options and considerations to support the sustainability and effectiveness of the system,” the June 2020 briefing note said. A spokesperson for Public Safety declined to offer further details about that process, or answer questions about whether it will include public consultations, whether there is a deadline for completing it, and what funding options — for instance, direct government funding or industry contributions — the department is considering. Public Safety did not respond by deadline to a follow-up question about whether Pelmorex would still be involved in an alternative funding system, while a Pelmorex spokesperson said in an email the company “remains committed and intends to always operate the technical infrastructure of Canada’s national public alerting system regardless of the funding model.” Public Safety spokesperson Zarah Malik said in an email the department is “working with provinces and territories through collaborative tables such as Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM) to explore options to strengthen the governance, sustainability and effectiveness of the National Public Alerting System in Canada for the future.” Exact information about how much the system currently costs to run isn’t available. The most recent is from 2017, a year before the system began incorporating wireless alerts. As part of its last licence renewal application proceeding, Pelmorex told the CRTC that the system had $2.09 million in operational costs in 2017 and $340,642 in capital expenditures. The operational costs had increased from $1.34 million a year earlier and $1.59 million in 2015 mostly due to an increase in sales and promotional costs, which totalled $750,073 in 2017. Pelmorex declined to provide more recent cost data to The Wire Report. Spokesperson Karen Kheder said the available figures reflect the “incremental operating costs of the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System, the technical infrastructure of NPAS,” and don’t include costs incurred by partners, the costs of operating the Alert Ready website or contributions from other Pelmorex divisions such as its regulatory, communications or marketing departments. In its 2018 decision renewing Pelmorex’s licence, the CRTC put in place a wholesale rate of $0.22 per subscriber per month, which it said would allow Pelmorex to continue operating the alert system, but it said “based on the multi-platform nature of the NPAS and the complexity of the issues associated with emergency alerting,” that funding system “may not be the most appropriate vehicle” after the current licence term. “The communications industry will continue to do its part to support the NPAS by passing through emergency alerts, but the operation of the NAAD System and the development of related policies would be more appropriately situated with and supported by organizations more directly responsible for public safety, or with a single, nation-wide authoritative policy-making body supported by those organizations,” the CRTC said. The Public Safety reconsideration of how the emergency alert system is funded comes as the Department of National Defence is looking into expanding the emergency alerting system to computers, digital personal assistants, gaming platforms and IoT devices. — Reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Public Safety looking at changing emergency alert funding: gov’t docs

News | December 16, 2020

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Public Safety looking at changing emergency alert funding: gov’t docs

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