Nova Scotia premier blasts hurricane response from Big 3 and Eastlink; calls on ISED to intervene

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston wrote to Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, blasting the lack of information available to Nova Scotians from their telecommunications companies, as Atlantic Canada continues the clean up from Hurricane Fiona. In a Wednesday release, Houston said “Nova Scotians have questions about when their service will be restored, how widespread the outages are and what the companies plan to do to ensure this never happens again.” “It is unacceptable that there are Nova Scotians who can’t call 911 or connect with loved ones during this difficult time. There is no question we need our telecommunications companies to step up and be more transparent,” he said. Houston's release said that in the wake of the storm, the provincial Emergency Management Office (NSEMO) reached out to the major telecommunication companies, and requested the presence of representatives at the Provincial Coordination Centre (PCC). None were willing to send a representative initially, though BCE Inc. eventually sent a representative. Bell's representative left the PCC to work remotely after two days, according to the release. Bragg Communications Inc.'s Eastlink, Rogers Communications Inc., and Telus Corp. all declined to send representatives, the release added. The release from the Nova Scotia premier pointed out that by contrast, energy company Nova Scotia Power, the Canadian Red Cross, and the Halifax and Cape Breton Regional municipalities "have actively sought opportunities to communicate regularly with Nova Scotians leading up to, during the storm and after the storm." “Other service providers have come together in an effort to make sure Nova Scotians have the information they need, yet the telecommunications companies are consistently missing from the table,” Houston said, adding that his letter to Champagne is meant to call on the government "to ensure that telecommunications are accountable for their performance in emergencies and transparent with customers.” Houston's frustration with the telecom companies comes just three weeks after Champagne announced a network sharing agreement among telecom companies during emergencies, and two months after the development of a communications protocol for telecom service providers in response to the July outage experienced by Rogers. During the Rogers outage in July, Champagne stated that his office had told Rogers how important it was for the "company to provide prompt and clear communication directly to those impacted." In a CRTC proceeding initiated following the July outage, several stakeholder groups have criticized what they say is a level of secrecy from the company surrounding the events that led to the outage. In an afternoon scrum, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland told reporters that both she and Champagne would meet with the telecom CEOs Wednesday, though she did not specify which ones. She, too, criticized the companies' response to the storm. "Disappointing is a mild, mild word for our view on the performance of the telecom providers in Atlantic Canada. It is just not acceptable," she said, according to a transcript. "We will be making that very clear and we will be insisting on excellent service for the people who need it right now and on a plan so that this doesn't happen again." In an afternoon tweet, Champagne wrote that "everyone expects more reliability & transparency" from the telecom companies. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Nova Scotia premier blasts hurricane response from Big 3 and Eastlink; calls on ISED to intervene

News | September 28, 2022

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Nova Scotia premier blasts hurricane response from Big 3 and Eastlink; calls on ISED to intervene

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