BC Residents Will Receive An Emergency Alert On Their Phones Today & Here's What To Expect
Don’t worry, this is just a test. Today, Canada's emergency alerting system will be conducting a test in BC and across the nation. While some places in Canada have already received the test, BC residents have not. Here’s what you can expect to happen.
Alert Ready is known as Canada’s emergency alerting system. This system alerts Canadians on critical and potentially life-threatening incidents through television, radio, and LTE-connected wireless devices. The emergency alert system started last year and was quickly the centre of controversy.
This test is typically used to alert Canadians of a number of dangerous scenarios including fires, natural and hazardous disasters, terrorist attacks, environmental concerns, or biological dangers.
Today, that emergency alert will be tested across Canada. During each province's test, the public can expect to hear an alert tone from their devices. Along with the tone, a message should be displayed.
The message that will go out to all applicable Canadians will state that this is just a test. If it were a real emergency, safety instructions would follow the alert tone.
Alert Ready is reminding everyone not to call 911 as this is a test. If this was a real test, immediate action would need to be taken in order to keep yourself safe. Should a real alert take place in the future and end, an “all clear” message would be issued to all devices.
Since every province runs on a different time zone, some places have already received the alert test. Alert Ready has also stated that some places will not receive an emergency alert test due to flooding that is already underway. These places include Quebec and Ontario.
British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, and Yukon can expect to receive the alert at around 2 PM in each time zone.
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The Alert Ready system is tested twice a year - so there is one more coming!
Click here for more information on the emergency alert system and to see when it will be tested in Canada next.