Moncton Fire Department will join provincial radio system

Monctonfirefighters will soon be linked to the new provincial trunk mobile radio systemafter Moncton city council approved the purchase of a new $800,000 digital radio system at its meeting on Monday.

Monctonfire Chief Eric Arsenault said it's a move happening across the cityand the province.

"Our colleagues at the RCMP are now going to be going onto this new communication infrastructure and it only makes sense that the fire service in Moncton also piggyback on that," he said.

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Arsenault said first responders in greater Moncton can communicate within the system right now but, "It was a very convoluted process. We certainly could not talk to any outside agencies."

The department plans to purchase 40 mobile radios, 66 portable radios, two digital vehicle repeaters and various accessories like chargers, batteries, antennas and cables at a cost of about $800,000.

"We're going to do a wholesale conversion here in Moncton. We're taking our technology that dates back to 1992 and we're upgrading it to the modern era," he said.

'Perfect timing'

Arsenault said the current system the department is using is working on borrowed time.

The fire chief said the department was warned by Bell Mobility five years ago that the current platform that firefighters were usingwas at the end of its life cycle.

This is just we're taking advantage of perfect timing.- Eric Arsenault, Moncton fire chief

"We're getting close to that end of lifespan," he said.

"Whether we opted to [the provincial trunk system],we needed new radios. This is just we're taking advantage of perfect timing where the province now has a brand new modern radio infrastructure that we're able to tap into."

Arsenault said scanner enthusiasts, who like to listen to first responder calls, will still be able to listen to the fire department, but the Codiac RCMP may be a different story.

"I believe in the future it's going to be challenging to listen in on police conversations," he said.

Encrypted communications

The AlphonseMacNeilreport into the shooting deaths of three RCMP officers in Moncton in 2014 identified a need for encrypted police communication in the province.

The report said more secure communication would lead to better "operational effectiveness, officer safety and protection of privacy."

The RCMP said it is moving towardusing encryption.

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Arsenault expects the fire department'sswitch to the new system to happen in the fall.

"We're all going to go live at the same time, so if the RCMP are ahead of us, they'll have to wait until we're up and running because we're basically using a common platform from our dispatcher's perspective," he said.

He said the trunk system should last 10 to 15 years.

Fredericton's police force and fire department havemoved to the encrypted system.

The City of Saint John will be moving it's police and fire services to the new system as well. Ambulance New Brunswick plans to implement the trunk system in the fall.