Union representing 911 dispatchers warns of system overload due to staffing shortages

The union representing E-Comm 911 dispatch operators says the emergency service is facing a major staffing shortage and warns the system is ill-prepared to handle a major crisis.

The Emergency Communications Professionals of B.C., CUPE Local 8911, said in a statement that people phoning E-Comm dispatchers should be connected within five seconds or less for a 911 call, 10 seconds or less for a police emergency call, and three minutes or less for a police non-emergency call.

But it says the staffing shortage is pushing wait-times on police emergency line calls past 20 minutes and non-emergency wait-times past five hours in some instances.

"When you call 911 in an emergency, each and every second can mean the difference between life and death," union president Donald Grant wrote in a statement issued Thursday.

"The current situation is creating a dangerous cycle: our dedicated members who handle 99 per cent of the 911 calls across B.C. are breaking under the pressure of a system in failure, which only makes the situation worse."

A recent Price Waterhouse Coopers report commissioned by E-Comm 911 found that the organization is relying on overtime and staff missing breaks to meet service levels. It suggests that 125 full-time call takers be hired on top of those 153 staffers currently working. 

E-Comm 911 CEO Grüter-Andrew said the system has been under strain for some time.

"We came to the internal conclusion that as part of the problem we do not have enough funded seats to meet the current service targets in answering police non emergency calls ... I worry a lot about our staff at E-Comm. I worry about staff at other emergency communication centres, police, fire and ambulance," he said.

"The right thing to do is look at the system of emergency communication in British Columbia end-to-end ... and redesign and resource the system appropriately to deal with that for the sake of public safety."

E-Comm is a 911 service and dispatcher in B.C. When a person phones 911 in an emergency, they are directed to police, fire or ambulance services.

B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), which manages the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS), is also facing a staffing crisis, creating bottlenecks when dispatchers are unable to patch callers through.

During a "heat dome" that blanketed B.C. between June 25 and July 1, temperatures reached above 40 C in many areas with little relief at night, testing the province's medical system. 

At the height of the heat, the wait-time for an ambulance stretched to 90 minutes in some cases, with one paramedic saying there was a time when first responders had more than 200 calls pending.