RCMP say technical error caused Alert Ready system to leave out information in recent message

New Brunswick RCMP are blaming a technical error for problems with an Alert Ready message issued on Wednesday in the area of Cloverdale, N.B., east of Hartland.

RCMP issued a statement on the matter Friday.

The alert message flashed across TV and phone screens around 5 p.m., telling people to shelter in place because there was a man with a gun on an ATV. But some formats of the alert message did not include the location of the incident.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Hans Ouellette said the local alert that went out to cellphones in the Cloverdale region did include the location.

According to Friday's statement, RCMP confirmed after a review that their staff had followed the required procedures for entering the information into the Alert Ready system and that the information entered was complete. 

RCMP also stated they are working with partners in the provincial government and the system provider to fix the issue.

Martin Bélanger, director of public alerting for Pelmorex, said in a statement that the system was working as it should. 

Pelmorex operates the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System. The statement describes it as the central technical infrastructure of the Alert Ready system.

"We can confirm that the NAAD System worked as it was intended and that the alert issued by the RCMP did include information about the location of the situation," said Bélanger by email.

"We are working with our broadcasting partners, who play an important role in distributing alerts to the public, to further investigate why the alert content was not broadcasted in its entirety."

Testing important, expert says

Justice and Public Safety is aware the alert had issues and has told Pelmorex, the managers of the system, that the government considers finding the cause and fixing the problem an urgent need, said department spokesperson Allan Dearing.

Tim Trytten, the former lead of the Alberta Emergency Alert Program, said Alberta had its own emergency alert system before the Alert Ready program was in place. He estimates he's sent between 100 to 150 alerts. 

Reached in Edmonton, he wouldn't speculate about what happened Wednesday in New Brunswick, but called the Alert Ready system a "system of systems," with various indexes used to broadcast the message through a variety of providers.

"The alert system is operational all the time," said Trytten. "It's connected to all the radio and television broadcasters in the country through devices called encoders and decoders, or index for short. It's also connected to the wireless public alerting networks." 

He said he does wonder whether all those indexes are up to date, but any errors would have to be found by Pelmorex, or the broadcasters. 

As to how to prevent technical errors, he said it comes down to testing, which he said are typically done twice a year in Canada.

"The trouble is you have a low frequency, high severity event," said Trytten. "It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's important. So if it doesn't happen often, you need to have regular testing of the systems."