BC's Next Generation 9-1-1 Transition Is Underway

By Sherri Claydon | Vancouver City News | September 29, 2026
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If you call 9-1-1 in British Columbia over the coming weeks, you may not know anything has changed. You will still dial three numbers, speak with a call taker and be connected with the police, fire or ambulance service you need.

Behind the scenes, however, a major transition is underway. E-Comm has begun moving most of B.C.'s 9-1-1 service onto Next Generation 9-1-1, a new digital network that will replace infrastructure built for an earlier generation of telecommunications. Vancouver Island communities were the first to move onto the new network this month, with migrations scheduled to continue across E-Comm's service area through the end of November.

What callers experience may feel familiar, but getting to this point has required years of work. The technology is only part of it. Testing, mapping, training, new procedures, contingency planning and coordination across emergency agencies, governments, telecommunications providers and technology partners have all been part of changing a system British Columbians still need to work throughout the transition.

Replacing The System Behind The Call

Canada's existing 9-1-1 infrastructure was built around traditional telephone networks. Next Generation 9-1-1 moves emergency communications onto a digital, IP-based network designed to support the way people communicate today and provide a foundation for new emergency services in the future.

Those future capabilities include real-time text, improved location information and the ability to share richer digital information, including images and video. They are not part of E-Comm's initial 2026 migration, and the CRTC has not yet established a public launch deadline for NG9-1-1 real-time text.

Calling 9-1-1 is not being replaced. The new network is being built to expand the ways people can communicate with emergency services and the information that can be available to emergency professionals when they are responding.

That distinction is important because the transition happening in B.C. right now is primarily about building the infrastructure underneath those future capabilities.

Changing A System You Cannot Simply Turn Off

E-Comm provides the first point of contact for approximately 99% of B.C.'s 9-1-1 callers. Its NG9-1-1 project covers 25 regional districts and 71 police and fire agencies, along with project partners including BC Emergency Health Services, the B.C. RCMP and Saanich Fire Department. E-Comm describes it as Canada's largest NG9-1-1 implementation project.

The challenge is that the existing service has to keep operating while the new network is introduced.

E-Comm had originally expected to begin its migration in January 2026 but postponed the launch after identifying technical issues it considered critical to a safe and reliable transition. By June, the organization reported that it had achieved technical readiness and completed the testing milestones needed to support migration. Live migrations ultimately began in September.

The challenge has not been unique to B.C. The CRTC extended Canada's deadline for decommissioning the legacy 9-1-1 network to March 31, 2027 after finding that most emergency communications centres would not be ready under the previous timeline. Among the challenges identified nationally were limited vendor capacity, testing requirements and shortages of skilled technical resources.

The regulator also identified a more fundamental concern: retiring the existing network before emergency communications centres were ready could leave some Canadians without access to 9-1-1.

That makes continuity more than a technology-project objective. People still need to be able to reach emergency services while the system carrying those calls is being changed.

By The Numbers

99%
Approximate share of B.C. 9-1-1 callers for whom E-Comm provides the first point of contact

25
Regional districts included in E-Comm's NG9-1-1 implementation

71
Police and fire agencies included in the project

$150 million
Provincial funding announced in 2023 to support B.C.'s NG9-1-1 transition

$90 million
Portion allocated to E-Comm for technology upgrades

$60 million
Portion provided through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to support local implementation and preparedness

8
Regional versions of E-Comm's 9-1-1 operator policy and procedure manual replaced by one province-wide framework

March 31, 2027
Current CRTC deadline for decommissioning legacy enhanced 9-1-1 network components

What It Took To Get Here

E-Comm has been preparing for NG9-1-1 for years alongside telecommunications providers, technology vendors, local governments, emergency service agencies and other emergency communications centres.

In April 2021, E-Comm worked with TELUS, Avaya, Komutel and NICE to test an NG9-1-1 call transfer from its Lower Mainland centre to Calgary 9-1-1. Caller-location information travelled with the test call, something E-Comm said was not possible in the same way through Canada's legacy 9-1-1 systems.

The work since then has extended well beyond the network itself. Systems have been built and tested, staff trained, migration schedules coordinated and business-continuity plans adapted. Local governments have also been preparing geographic information, agreements and other operational requirements needed for the transition.

One detail gives a sense of how far that work reaches. E-Comm previously operated with eight regional versions of its 9-1-1 operator policy and procedure manual. Ahead of NG9-1-1, those were replaced with one province-wide framework incorporating new NG9-1-1 procedures, enhanced business-continuity measures and new operating protocols.

The Province has also committed $150 million toward B.C.'s transition, including $90 million for E-Comm's technology upgrades and $60 million administered through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to support local implementation. Eligible local costs include work such as mapping and GIS, training, hardware and software, legal and contract work, change management and business continuity.

Taken together, those details show how much of a technology transformation happens somewhere other than the technology itself.

Why Location Matters

NG9-1-1 is designed to make greater use of geographic information systems and, over time, geospatial routing. For that to work, the underlying information about addresses, roads and geographic boundaries has to be accurate and usable across the organizations involved.

In B.C., that has meant preparation by local governments and provincial coordination through GeoBC, while national technical work continues on mapping standards and geospatial routing.

It is easy to think of a digital 9-1-1 network as a telecommunications project. Making location work across that network also makes it a data project, requiring information maintained by organizations far beyond the emergency communications centre itself.

What Callers Will Notice

For now, very little changes for someone making an emergency call, although there is one new feature people may encounter.

The digital network can identify extremely short calls that disconnect before reaching an E-Comm call taker, including accidental calls ended almost immediately. As communities migrate, those calls can trigger an automated callback from a 10-digit number beginning with a 604 area code. Callers can press 1 to connect with a 9-1-1 call taker or press 3 if the original call was accidental, and the system will try again if the first callback is unanswered.

Calls disconnected after someone has already reached a call taker will continue to receive a manual callback. E-Comm says the automated system is expected to be available across its B.C. service area by October 6.

The more visible changes associated with NG9-1-1 will come later. Real-time text, enhanced location capabilities and the ability to share richer digital information require additional technical, operational and regulatory work before they become broadly available.

Why It Matters

Most people will never have to think about the network behind 9-1-1. What matters is that it works when they call.

That is what makes this transition different from an ordinary technology upgrade. The system being modernized connects people with emergency help, often when time and information matter most. The future network is being built not only to replace aging infrastructure, but to give emergency professionals access to more useful information and more ways of communicating with the people they are trying to help.

For British Columbians, many of those capabilities are still ahead. The migration happening now is building the foundation that will make them possible.

It also shows what replacing critical infrastructure actually requires. New technology has to work with existing emergency services. Location data has to be accurate. Call takers need procedures and training. Police, fire and ambulance services need to be ready. Telecommunications providers, local governments, vendors and emergency communications centres have to coordinate their parts of the transition, while people continue calling 9-1-1 every day.

E-Comm's migration is scheduled to continue through November, so the work is not finished and the outcome of the full rollout cannot yet be judged.

If the transition works as intended, that may be precisely why most British Columbians barely notice it. They will still dial three numbers and expect someone to answer, while the system behind that call becomes capable of carrying much more.

Behind three familiar numbers is a system that can only stay simple for the public because the work behind it is anything but.

By Sherri Claydon | Vancouver City News LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherriclaydon

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