By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
The Village of Valemount issued a test notification through Voyent Alert!, its emergency alert system, on Friday, August 2nd. To CAO Anne Yanciw’s knowledge, it was the first time the system has been tested since being adopted in October 2022, she told The Goat.
Voyent Alert! is a mass notification system which local governments can use to alert residents of emergencies, such as wildfire or floods. Residents must register with Voyent Alert! to receive the notifications, which can be sent via a mobile app, email, text, or a landline phone call.
According to Yanciw, 523 people are currently subscribed to Valemount’s Voyent Alert! system. The Village hopes to get more subscribers, and will host an Open House in the fall to promote the system, she added.
The Village does not currently have a schedule for how often the system should be tested, Yanciw told The Goat. She hopes to establish such a schedule to make sure the system is in working order, and to identify ways it can be improved.
“We have been working on emergency preparation and ensuring the system works has been on the to-do list for the last while. We began planning for a test prior to the Jasper evacuation,” she said in an email to The Goat. “It is critically important that we know that a system we are relying on in an emergency works, and we also need to know how we can improve.”
No provincial regulations on testing
According to Voyent Alert! spokesperson Brian McKinney, the company encourages clients to test the system at least once a year, though twice a year is ideal. Additionally, the company reviews test alerts to identify areas of improvement in the system.
“We watch for any bottlenecks that might occur across the local telecom infrastructure…We also use the events to screen data for any discontinued phone numbers (or) emails,” McKinney wrote in an email to The Goat.
When a municipality subscribes to Voyent Alert!, company staff provide training to the government administrators tasked with issuing emergency alerts, McKinney said. Voyent Alert! also provides unlimited refresher trainings and trains any new administrators throughout the year, and the company can conduct event drills for governments to practice using the system, he added.
According to McKinney, Voyent Alert! is used in over 50 per cent of B.C. communities, and has been used to issue over 90 evacuation alerts or orders across the province since May 1st. Governments are in charge of when and how the system is used, he said – some communities use it for day-to-day communication, whereas others use it strictly for emergencies.
In a statement emailed to The Goat, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness said the Province does not regulate how often local governments test their own alert systems. When an emergency occurs, the Ministry can provide guidance on how best to alert the public, according to the statement.
“Local governments and First Nations will have their own alerting processes and they may have various tools at their disposal like mobile alerting apps (such as Voyent Alert!), text- and call-based alerting systems, their own website and/or social media, door-to-door knocking plan, sirens, etc.,” the Ministry’s statement reads. “This may create some redundancy, but it helps to keep people safe and informed as quickly as possible during emergencies.”
Local governments are not required to have their own alert systems, but the Province encourages them to identify internal and external communication systems as part of emergency management planning, the statement adds.
“As part of an emergency plan, all residents and visitors should understand how their local government or First Nation will communicate emergency information to them,” the statement ends. “This might involve knowing whether they use an alerting system, such as Alertable, their official website, a Facebook group, or other communication methods.”
