N.W.T., Yukon gov'ts to test emergency alert system

People living in the Northwest Territories and Yukon will hear their territory's public alert system on their radio,TV and compatible wireless devicesWednesday.

The N.W.T. government willconduct its testat 9:55 a.m. local time while in Yukon,the test will take place at 1:55 p.m. local time, accordingto a news release from PelmorexCorp., which operates the technical infrastructure of the Alert Ready system across Canada.

Nunavut will not be participating in the test. It will however be conductedin all 10 provinceson Wednesday.

"It provides an opportunity to validate and improve the performance and reliability of the system and to ensure it operates as it is intended in the event of an imminent life-threatening situation," the news release from Pelmorexstates.

According to the company,the national alert system has delivered more than 170 emergency alerts since the start of the year,relatedto events such as tornadoes, flooding, fires and Amber Alerts.

Check wireless device compatibility, says N.W.T. gov't

The N.W.T. government said in a news release Tuesday that people may not receive the alerton their wireless devices "for a variety of reasons, including device compatibility, connection to an LTE network, cell tower coverage, device software and settings."

It says it encourages the public to check their device compatibility on their wireless service provider's websiteand make sure they have the latest software update installed.

The N.W.T. government said the territory'salert system, which is part of the national public alerting system, is still under development, but is expected to be fully implemented in 2021.