N.B. mobile radio system upgrades will help first responders

The New Brunswick government is spending $100 million to upgrade its mobile radio system, which willenable all first responders to communicate with one another, as well as their Maritime counterparts,during emergencies and weather events.

"Our existing communication system is unable to support modern communications requirements necessary for emergency services, daily enforcement, and protection of residents and business,"Infrastructure Minister Roger Melanson said in a statement.

"It presents unacceptable risks to first responders and to service operations in times of emergency. We need a more reliable, functional system to increase safety, improve outcomes for residents, support business investments and do our job properly."

Officials hope the system will prevent communication problemslike the ones that occurredduring the Moncton shootings on June 4, 2014, when threeCodiacRegionalRCMPofficers were killed and two others were wounded.

A system that allows RCMP members from all Maritime divisions to communicatewas one of therecommendations of an independent report thatlooked intotheMonctonshootings.

"This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to Moncton," said Assistant Commissioner Roger Brown, the commanding officer for theRCMPin New Brunswick.The provincial government has been considering options for improving the 30-year-old system since 2007.

"But with the new system in place, it will certainly go a long, long way to address some of the issues that came up in the MacNeil report addressing the communications pieces," said Brown.

The current system, whichserves more than 3,400 users, including first responders, enforcement officers, and public service workers,such as school bus drivers and snow plow operators, does not allow communication between the various agencies and does not offer interprovincialoperability.

We're operating here in New Brunswick on a system from the '80s. If you and I were running on a system from the '80s, passing around floppy disks and sending fax messages and so on, how efficient would we be today?- Roger Brown, RCMP

The upgrades will alsoeliminate many of the so-called dead zones in rural areas and make it easier to encrypt sensitive communications.

Brown says he's relieved.

"We're operating here in New Brunswick on a system from the '80s. If you and I were running on a system from the '80s, passing around floppy disks and sending fax messages and so on, how efficient would we be today?"

The provincial government has partnered on the project with Bell Mobility, which will construct communication towers, place antennas and networking infrastructure at new and existing towers, and handle the supply, installation and configuration of network and user equipment as well as help with the development of courseware and training for radio technicians.

Work on the upgrades is already underway and is expected to be completed by late 2016.

The governments of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island also recently formed similar partnerships with Bell Mobility toupgradetheir systems, which will enableinterprovincialcommunication.