Businesses, doctors, DARTS service in Hamilton and Niagara among those hit by massive Rogers outage

Several services and businesses in Hamilton and Niagara are experiencing delays and interruptions due to a Canada-wide Rogers outage that began early Friday. 

In a series of tweets, the City of Hamilton said several services were impacted, including to the DARTS accessible transit service, which is experiencing "major schedule disruptions." Until the outage is resolved, "there will be impacts to trip booking and delivery," the city said. 

The outage is impacting wireless, cable and internet customers across the country.

"We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible," Rogers tweeted. "We will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share."

In Hamilton, the city said the Glanbrook Municipal Service Centre is also experiencing service disruptions.

The credit and debit card function of some city services are being impacted, including:

• Metered on-street parking.
• The HSR GO Centre on Hunter Street
• Community Recycling Centres

The city's customer service line is receiving a "high volume of calls" at the moment, the city said, but it is able to take calls. 

Halton police reminded residents using Rogers that they will not be able to dial 911 from their cellular service, and asked them to use a land line in case of an emergency. 

Hamilton police said their 911 centre is fully operational, and are encouraging residents calling from Rogers cellular services to stay on the line until they are connected if they do get through.

Niagara police also said its 911 services are fully operational and unaffected. It also encouraged people to use landlines or other carriers in emergencies.

Hamilton Paramedic Service told CBC Hamilton it continues to service 911 calls that it receives through its dispatch centre. "Although we have had to alter some administrative processes internally, there is currently no impact to our 911 operations and the ability to be dispatched, respond and transport patients to hospital once a  911 call is received," it said. 

Hospitals rescheduling appointments 

Niagara Health said, in an announcement on Friday, it is rescheduling oncology patients with radiation therapy appointments because of the outage. Anyone needing emergency radiation treatment is being sent to Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS).

It also said any patients who have Rogers and can't connect to virtual appointments will be contacted by Niagara Health to rebook the appointment.

While there aren't other impacts to patient care right now, Niagara Health says debit machines are down.

"Our staff and physicians are also experiencing some communication issues related to cell service," according to the press release.

"The hospital's main phone line is working at 905-378-4647. We ask that you limit calls to urgent calls only."

HHS said its systems use Bell and are not impacted; however, the outage is disrupting some hospital operations.

"This includes those staff and physicians who rely on Rogers' cellular or internet providers, partner hospitals and other healthcare organizations," HHS spokesperson Wendy Stewart told CBC Hamilton.

"HHS teams are currently assessing the impact of the loss of connectivity and are putting in place measures to mitigate the impact to care such as contacting physicians to ensure they are available to provide on-call response and consultations."

Rogers outage impacting border and ArriveCan submissions

The outage is also causing issues for travellers.

Canada Border Services Agency said the outage is affecting people trying to complete ArriveCan submissions while crossing the border into Canada.

"For the duration of the outage, impacted travellers are required to submit their information using the Traveller Contact Information Form, to be completed prior to arrival at the border if unable to submit via ArriveCan," the agency said in a tweet. 

Paper copies of proof of vaccination will also be required, said the CBSA. The form can be found online here. 

Outage impacting business

Businesses have also been hit with payment system disruptions.

One Hamilton Farmer's Market vendor, Victoria Longa-Belletti, from Latin Food & Products, told CBC Hamilton said that when she came into work Friday morning, already several customers were waiting in line at their stall because their debit and credit machine was not working and transactions were slowed down as a result. 

"Which we didn't anticipate because our service provider is Bell," she said. Bell tweeted Friday morning that its network was operational.

Longa-Belletti said other stalls at the market were having to turn clients away and that customers were stopping by banks to get out cash.

"I've had costumers come back and tell me there were huge lineups at the banks," she said.

Gas bar owner concerned with staff safety

Jessica Friesen is the owner of Gales Gas Bars. The chain has 14 locations throughout the Niagara region and also delivers petroleum products as far as Stoney Creek and Dunnville.

She said the outage is affecting debit transactions, lottery terminals, ATMs, GPS devices and some landlines at company headquarters.

Friesen said it's been especially problematic at 24-hour locations, where many customers who came in before 7 a.m. didn't know the issue was nationwide.

"People are less patient … they get very frustrated and assume it's a concern with just my sites and don't understand why we can't accept debit cards."

While credit card transactions are still working, the gas industry heavily relies on debit, she said.

But Friesen said the issue is "much, much bigger than just debit cards not working."

"My main concern right now is the safety of all of my staff," she said.

"A lot of my staff use cellphones and even right now, I have a lot of trucks on the road — I can't communicate with them right now … I don't know where they are," Friesen said.

Friesen said if there's a silver lining, it's the issue is nationwide.

"People are more understanding."