Thursday, March 5, 2015
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HALIFAX
16
NEWS WORTH SHARING.
The King of complexity Neptune Theatre portraying the secret life of William Lyon Mackenzie King PAGE 9
Big changes for 311 system Communication. Officials embarking on overhaul of municipal information line to improve wait times STEPHANIE TAYLOR
stephanie.taylor@metronews.ca
After a frustrating month of busy signals and long wait times, residents in Halifax could see an entirely new telephone system for 311 by this time next year, according to the city’s director of operations. Jane Fraser said $740,000 in capital will be spent to replace the old phone program in hopes of better streamlining residents’ calls and avoiding the “below service standards” seen in February, she told city councillors during Wednesday’s budget deliberations. “Unfortunately, it’s a com-
Calls received
400,000 The average number of calls received by 311 every year
bination of the very unusual weather that we’re having and the inability to get anything to melt, the volume of calls and people’s frustration. Everybody’s cranky,” she said. Old technology is one of the major challenges facing the call centre, Fraser said, explaining that the current system can only hold 50 calls in the queue, meaning the 51st caller would hear a busy signal. That was a major concern for Coun. Linda Mosher, who said that from Jan. 1 to Feb. 25, 311 received 9,330 calls about sidewalk and street snow removal. On Wednesday, Fraser said the call centre is fully
staffed with 32 agents, who are also on call as needed during busy seasons. In fact, she said due to last month’s series of storms, some employees spent the night at the 311 headquarters located in the Eric Spicer building in Dartmouth, which is stocked with inflatable mattresses and food, to be ready to answer calls first thing in the morning. “If the system can only take 50 calls it doesn’t matter how many agents that you have,” she told councillors, adding the current infrastructure is “almost at its end.” Introducing a type of triage service is another improvement Fraser hopes to see in the system overhaul, which is currently at the assessment phase. Councillors also asked for changes to the service’s restart function, which erases unresolved complaints from a previous storm with every new weather event.
OH DANNY BOY
Halifax Mooseheads forward Danny Moynihan celebrates after scoring against the Bathurst Titan in QMJHL action at the Scotiabank Centre, Wednesday. The Mooseheads won 7-4. Story, page 21. MONA GHIZ/FOR METRO
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