911 expansion can't come quickly enough: officials

Fire officials and politicians in rural Newfoundland and Labrador are applauding a push to extend emergency phone services.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced in November it will pay for a study to determine the costs of expanding the 911 system beyond major centres.

Such a move cannot come quickly enough for various groups — mayors, ambulance operators and volunteer firefighters — who have been campaigning for years for a provincewide 911 system. In most communities in the province, residents often have to consult a phone book to find numbers for the nearest fire department or hospital.

Ron Garland, fire department chief in Carbonear, said residents there at least can count on the Conception Bay town's hospital for round-the-clock phone support.

"Thank God we've got that hospital there. That's a big asset to us," he told CBC News.

"That switchboard is there 24 hours, so I don't know what other communities do…. If you had all those areas tied into a 911 system, all those rural areas and rural communities, everybody could be on the one system."

Carbonear Mayor Sam Slade said a common communications system could save lives.

"911 seems so simple," he said.

"It's not a number that you would ever forget [and] when we deal with people and life-threatening situations, of course, time — seconds, minutes — mean everything," Slade said.

Bids on the study closed on Dec. 18.

In a statement in November, Municipal Affairs Minister Dianne Whalen said while the government sees a provincial 911 system as a "valid objective," it needs to collect "the technical data and cost analysis that are required to make an informed decision."