Skip to content

MP Report - Nov. 23, 2018

Taking the North’s public safety concerns to Ottawa
Niki Ashton new

When you call the police during an emergency situation you shouldn’t be put on hold or hung up on. But that’s exactly what has been happening in our region.

As MP for our region I have spoken out in support of local residents who have experienced exactly that.

Imagine phoning to report a serious crime in progress and being put on hold for up to 20 minutes.

That is why I asked that the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security of the House of Commons to ask Geri Dixon and Alicia Bedford to speak directly about what happened to them.

Geri Dixon talked about her daughter’s  experience where she had waited four minutes and 29 seconds to be connected with the RCMP while someone was trying to break into her home.

It was a harrowing experience. “There was the banging on the doors, there was banging on the windows, there was screaming outside, while me and my two young daughters are alone in the house,” Alicia Bedford told the Thompson Citizen. She repeated this story to the committee.

Calls for much of the North are relayed through a dispatch centre in either Brandon or Winnipeg,

“We don’t have a local dispatch, we don’t have a local 911, and I think it’s unacceptable that we have to be on hold,” Alicia Bedford told the committee “Our lives don’t seem to matter as much as somebody who has 911 that will get through right away. We have called at least four to five times and three times, for sure, we have actually been hung up on. And the next three times we were put on hold and this was the incident where we watched a stabbing taking place, and we couldn’t get through.”

They are circulating a petition that calls for the establishment of an emergency call centre in Thompson to serve the North.

As MP for our region I support their efforts 100 per cent. When they presented to the House of Commons committee they spoke for many other people who share that concern.

When it comes to safety and public security we need to make sure we have the right call centre and the appropriate resources so that Alicia, Geri and other people in our region don’t have to go through this again.

 
push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks