Alert Ready

Alert Ready (referred to in legislation as the National Public Alert System)^[1] is an national warning system in Canada. The system will be used to distribute public alerts issued by government authorities, including weather emergencies and other emergency notifications, across all television stations, radio stations, and television providers in the affected region. The system is based upon the Common Alerting Protocol, and uses the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination system (NAAD), a platform operated by Pelmorex Media, as its backend for distributing alerts to broadcasters.

In development since 2010, the system officially launched on March 31, 2015; the system is legally backed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), who enacted a mandate in August 2014 for all television and radio broadcasters in Canada to relay emergency messages that are distributed through NAAD.

History

Proposals

Various attempts had been made in the 21st century to establish a public alert system in Canada, by both departments of government and by television broadcasters. In 2001, Pelmorex, owners of The Weather Network and its French language counterpart MétéoMédia, applied to the CRTC for an amendment to their licenses to encompass a mandatory "All Channel Alert" system, requiring all "class A" television providers to relay emergency messages on behalf of governments across all of their channels. The service would have used proprietary hardware developed by Pelmorex, and would have been funded primarily by a $0.13 increase in carriage rates for the two channels on participating providers. However, its initial proposal was denied by the CRTC, citing the need for consultation with broadcasters and television providers and other parties on how the system would be designed, along with its costs.^[2][3] Establishment of such a system in a voluntary form was also hampered by CRTC rules requiring television providers to obtain consent from broadcasters before they can overlay emergency notifications onto their programming.^[2]

In 2005, CRTC would call for proposals regarding a national alerting system; both Pelmorex and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation submitted proposals for a national system, while Bell ExpressVu submitted a proposal requesting the removal of the consent requirement. The CBC's proposal would have fed alerts via satellite to decoders installed at local CBC Radio transmitters. It would have allowed television providers to participate on a voluntary basis by installing decoders of their own, if the aforementioned consent requirement were removed. All three applicants promised to adopt the standardized alerting specifications that were developed by the government-backed CANALERT initiative.^[2]

While broadcasters and governments supported the proposals for a national alerting system, CTV, Canwest Global and CHUM Limited showed concerns surrounding the Pelmorex proposal as it would be operated by a for-profit venture that would have the power to override their signals with third-party content, and be redundant to alerts already provided as a public service by some broadcasters. Shaw and Rogers also argued that the Pelmorex system was less cost-efficient than the CBC's proposal. It was also disputed whether the CRTC could even order the mandatory distribution of the service, as purely alphanumeric content is not classified as a television program under CRTC regulations, and thus not subject to regulation. The CRTC ultimately ruled in 2007 that it would remove the consent requirement for public alerting, thus easing the adoption of voluntary alerting, but that it would reconsider the possibility of a mandatory alert system in the future.^[2]

Establishment

In 2009, as a condition of approval for its request for carriage of The Weather Network to be mandatory across all digital television providers, Pelmorex committed to developing a "national aggregator and distributor" of localized emergency alert messages compliant with the Common Alerting Protocol. Pelmorex established a governance council for the system, including representatives of the broadcasting industry, federal government, members of the Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM), and the Canadian Association for Public Alerting and Notification, to oversee its operations. The system, known as the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination system (NAAD) would become operational in 2010. In a 2011 renewal of the must-carry status, the CRTC praised Pelmorex's work, considering the NAAD system to be "an essential element of a national public alerting system", and expressed an expectation for all broadcasters to voluntarily participate in distributing its alerts. However, as a condition of the renewal, CRTC ordered Pelmorex to reach agreements with all federal, provincial and territorial emergency management officials to allow them to transmit messages through the system, implement the capability of processing "broadcast intrusive alerts" through the system, and develop public awareness campaign surrounding the alert system with a budget of at least $1 million per-year.^[4][5][6]

Environment Canada, the Canadian Council of Emergency Management Organizations, and the provinces of Manitoba and New Brunswick endorsed the potential use of the NAAD framework as a backend for a mandatory public alerting system.^[6][1] On May 26, 2013, SOREM published a "Common Look and Feel" specification for alerts. Developed with guidance from the broadcasting industry, it describes how and when alerts are to be distributed and presented to the public.^[1] On February 27, 2014, the CRTC issued a proposal to mandate participation in the national alert system by all broadcasters. The commission felt that owing to the importance of the endeavour, broadcasters had displayed an inconsistent level of commitment to implement it voluntarily.^[1]

On August 29, 2014, the CRTC ruled that all Canadian broadcasters, including over-the-air television broadcasters, radio broadcasters, and broadcast distribution undertakings, must begin participating in the National Public Alert System by March 31, 2015. Most broadcasters were given until March 31, 2015 to implement the system. Community, campus, and aboriginal broadcasters were given an extended deadline of March 31, 2016 to implement the system.^[4] The National Public Alert System officially launched on March 31, 2015 under the public-facing brand Alert Ready.^[7] Several television providers do not currently participate in the system, citing the need to address difficulties implementing emergency alerts on their older infrastructure equipment, such as the inability to interrupt programming for alerts on older set-top boxes. Bell, MTS, Shaw, and Sogetel were granted a six-month extension for the implementation deadline by the CRTC in order to address these issues, but must send bi-weekly progress reports to the CRTC, and inform their customers that they do not currently support Alert Ready. CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais criticized the providers for their inability to properly implement the system, stating that the CRTC "will not hide our disappointment that certain television service providers are not ready, despite having been given more than enough time [to implement it.]"^[8][9]

See also

• Alberta Emergency Alert

References

External links

• Official website