Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Emergency services switch to CREST

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 22:32:16 -0400

Emergency services switch to CREST

Bill Cleverley
Times Colonist

Monday, April 07, 2003

Borders are becoming less of
a barrier for Capital Region
emergency workers as they
make the transition to a new
$15-million communication
system.

Major construction work on
the system known as CREST
(Capital Region Emergency
Service Telecommunications)
was completed in February.
Police in Oak Bay, Central
Saanich and Saanich are
already using the system while Victoria police are making the transition.

Within two or three months, all 46 emergency service organizations will be
on board and, for the first time, be able to communicate with each other
regardless of whether they are firefighters in Colwood or bus drivers in
downtown Victoria. Currently, if different services need to talk to each
other, they usually have to rely on passing messages through their individual
dispatchers.

"The RCMP technically are ready and they're kind of going on as they
want," CREST chairwoman and Langford Coun. Denise Blackwell said.
"Some of their tactical folks have the radios now and they're phasing it on
their own.

"The next to go, I think, will be Esquimalt fire and then a few of the fire
departments after that."

The seamless transition is a tribute to the effort put in during the four years
the system has been in development, CREST manager Paul Murray said.

"It's been in effect, a non-event, which is what we like to see. There's been
no major issues," Murray said. "In Oak Bay, particularly, we received a call
that was very supportive about the coverage. They had several dead spots
that they were exposed to previously where they couldn't get coverage and
now they're clear as a bell. So they were quite pleased with that."

The system is funded through a 66-cent charge on each resident's phone
bill -- the same funding method employed by the 911 emergency number.

"It's amazing," Blackwell said. "It's really been one of the better projects
that I've been involved with because everybody's co-operating and there's
no jurisdictional disputes other than at the very beginning when a few
people bickered over how we were going to pay for it."

CREST contracted with Motorola Canada to construct, monitor and help
maintain the system. It is owned by 13 Capital Region municipalities, the
Capital Regional District, the B.C. Ambulance Service, B.C. Transit, the
RCMP and the province.

http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=1CF119C0-AE45-4E18-AAAE-03C89C0E202A

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