PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS ROLLING OUT TO PORT RENFREW

With the highly anticipated approach of warmer weather and longer days, Highway 14 from Sooke to Port Renfrew will see a rapid increase in the number of outdoor enthusiasts and tourists traveling to and through these west coast communities. Thanks to a provincial push to bring cellular service to this underserved area, Capital Region Emergency Service Telecommunications Inc. (CREST), has successfully negotiated a co-location agreement with Rodgers Communications (Rogers). This agreement enables CREST to

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extend their public safety network from Otter Point to Port Renfrew making life safer for residents, for emergency responders and for visitors to this well-traveled corridor. For Otter Point, Shirley and Port Renfrew Fire Departments, RCMP and BC Ambulance Service, this is welcomed news.

Otter Point is the first community in this expansion of services initiative to experience the public safety benefits of the CREST system, and Otter Point Fire Department, Chief John McCrea is pleased. “I would like to thank all the CREST team who worked on the new tower in Otter Point! After the tower came online, we did some testing ourselves on the communications from the 8400 block West Coast Road, west, all the way to Muir Creek. Our testing on the CREST network verifies that there are significant improvements throughout this section of our district. It appears that we now have clear communications throughout this whole area where we had spotty or no communications previously.”

Assuming alignment with BC Hydro’s response times, critical public safety communications will be available just in time for summer along this busy west coast corridor by mid-May bringing service to Shirley, Bear Beach, Minute Creek and Port Renfrew.

More than 3000 first responders and public service personnel rely upon the CREST public safety telecommunications network 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to protect our communities and to keep themselves safe. The CREST network handles more than 10 million transmissions per year, or one call every three seconds. CREST has another colocation agreement with Rogers to address gaps in coverage on the Gulf Islands. Without this critical public safety infrastructure in place, service interruptions and dead zones will continue to challenge emergency responders working in these areas putting them and the public at risk.

Capital Region Emergency Service Telecommunications Inc. (CREST) provides and maintains emergency communications equipment and infrastructure that supports more than 50 emergency response and public service agencies 24/7 throughout the Capital Region. This includes fire departments, police departments, BC Ambulance Services, BC Transit, UVic security, Victoria International Airport, BC Conservation Officer Service, Legislative Assembly security, municipal bylaw departments and others.

CREST completed a $24.5 million network upgrade in 2020 to a digital network that is a world standard in public safety communications technology. In addition to a suite of enhanced performance features, of paramount importance is the network’s design. The geographic layout of the CREST network responds to our unique island geography with built-in redundancy that strengthens the Capital Region’s ability to be self-reliant in the face of a largescale disaster. While the CREST network allows for interoperability with E-Comm (Emergency Communications for British Columbia Inc.), the network is designed to ensure our region’s emergency response agencies have a dedicated public safety communications system tailored to our island location.