Mayors from across the province have unanimously endorsed efforts by the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent to address serious flaws in emergency call routing protocols.
Representatives from the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent presented a council-adopted resolution addressing local routing difficulties during the Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM) annual convention in late September.
The MRC’s resolution stemmed from the fact that 9-1-1 calls placed from the Saint-Anicet area are frequently routed to emergency call centres outside Quebec before being transferred to the appropriate services. The delays resulting from these transfers can reach up to 40 minutes, and issues such as language barriers further complicate the situation.
Adopted on April 15, the MRC’s resolution calls for better collaboration between the relevant authorities and telecom service providers to improve the routing of emergency calls, including those made using cellular or Voice over IP (VoIP) technology.
“Some issues arise from the day-to-day realities of our municipalities, but they deserve to be addressed at the provincial level,” said MRC prefect Yves Métras while he addressed the congress. He highlighted the work of Saint-Anicet’s Mayor Sylvie Tourangeau, who raised the issue with the regional council shortly after being elected in 2025, before inviting her to introduce the resolution and its demands.
Tourangeau explained that access to effective emergency services is a public safety issue that concerns all Quebec municipalities, and that the realities of rural areas and border regions must be considered in their development.
The resolution asks for direct routing to ensure calls are logged with the nearest emergency call centre; telecom provider accountability, requiring that coverage boundaries and routing limitations are communicated to customers; and inter-provincial cooperation to ensure that those living in border zones can count on reliable and efficient response times to emergency calls.
“Too many residents have had to call 9-1-1 and did not receive the service they needed, whether for a heart attack or a fire on a farm. Seconds are crucial; we cannot tolerate delays in this type of emergency,” said Tourangeau in a statement following the FQM decision.
For the MRC, the endorsement by the FQM transitions the issue from a localized problem to a province-wide municipal demand. But while it represents an important step, it will not resolve the problem on its own.
“When someone dials 9-1-1, they must be able to count on their call being reliably routed to the services that can help them. The unanimous support expressed at the FQM convention shows that the concern raised by our MRC deserves collective attention,” said Métras.
“We will continue our efforts to ensure that the specific characteristics of our region are taken into account in the search for solutions,” he concluded.