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Montreal’s emergency telecommunications system was down for two and a half hours last night.
The system, known as SERAM, experienced an outage from about 1:30 a.m. to 3:35 a.m., confirmed Francis Fleury, section chief at the Montreal Fire Department.
As an interim measure, workers communicated assignments using cell phones, he said.
“No major issues” were reported, he added.
Montreal police say they put in place measures to ensure that the safety of personnel would not be compromised and that calls would be relayed to teams on the ground.
The city of Montreal has given itself until 2029 to replace SERAM, a system that experienced problems since its launch in 2014.
At the heart of police complaints was the sound quality of communications. In some areas, field agents said they had difficulty understanding dispatchers on modern radio waves.
Issues were so frequent that efforts to resolve them helped raise costs to $129 million from the original estimate of $74 million for the system, according to a report by Montreal’s former general auditor Michèle Galipeau.
While waiting to find its next radio communication system, the City is reassuring.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the city said SERAM is “adequate and efficient since it meets the standards of those involved in public security.”
But Yves Francoeur, the president of the Montreal Police Brotherhood, said he was “very concerned” about the system’s failures.
“The Fraternity requested and obtained from the employer an emergency meeting from the perspective of health and safety at work as well as the safety of Montrealers,” he said. “We consider it essential that solutions be identified and implemented within timely deadlines.”
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