I commend Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen for urging a single fire dispatch centre for Greater Victoria.
The forthcoming centralized police dispatch centre should be a start, as it will have 911 phone calls routed into it already.
But beware it will probably take time to get operating smoothly. (Timing will depend on re-training of any retained operators, and setup of proper information displays to the operator – the mis-oriented map one supervisor claims is in use, and the operators who cannot grasp the caller’s situation nor geometry, are not acceptable.)
Ultimately each operator should be able to dispatch all emergency responders, including ambulance, fire, police, and water. (Remembering the safety hazard from a break on Burnside Road and a costly mess in Oak Bay.) The current delay resulting from an operator asking the caller what service s/he wants is not acceptable. Capable operators should be able to judge better than the caller what services to roll. They can be reduced or supplemented in the ensuing minutes as more information is revealed, as is now the case. For example, Saanich rolled much fire department resources when a truck hit a house, but when it become apparent there was no fire, no building collapse risk, and no injuries they knew they did not need it all – better too much than too little.
An example of confusion resulting from lack of integration is 911 calls along the Gorge waterway routed to the wrong police department (Esquimalt, Saanich, and West Shore RCMP for First Nation lands). The caller does not know.
Visitors may not know the division of tasks here compared to where they live – in some cities the fire department provides paramedic first response.
I continue to recommend a hot backup site, somewhere with different geology – perhaps Langford, perhaps Surrey.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich