Goldie Ghamari - October 15, 2018


Question Period - Ontario's Public Safety Radio Network

Topics
emergency communications infrastructure modernization
Hosted by
Goldie Ghamari
Mentioned
Speaker Carleton Osgoode
Question Period - Sir John A MacDonald Statue in Victoria, BC Interview with 580 CFRA's Rob Snow about the 2018 CHEO Dream Home in Stittsville

Episode Stats


Length

3 minutes

Words per minute

137.31

Word count

533

Sentence count

27


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Eric Hoskins, answers a question from a member from Carleton asking why Ontario's Public Safety Radio Network is in need of modernization. Minister Hoskins also explains how modernizing the network will benefit smaller, rural and northern communities across the province.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.560 Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional
00:00:08.000 Services. Minister, with the recent tornadoes that affected many families throughout Ottawa region,
00:00:13.840 we've heard of the many difficulties faced by our dedicated emergency responders during their
00:00:18.720 response efforts. The communications infrastructure that our hard-working frontline
00:00:23.680 officers and emergency personnel rely upon to respond to emergency situations is in a terrible
00:00:29.280 state of disrepair. Speaker, through you, could the minister please explain to all members of
00:00:35.360 this Legislature what he is doing to ensure that Ontario's emergency communications infrastructure
00:00:41.040 is improved? Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
00:00:45.680 Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the member from Carleton for the question.
00:00:50.560 As you've heard today, our government has taken real action to address Ontario's crumbling
00:00:56.080 public safety radio network, a system relied upon by many of the province's frontline officers and
00:01:03.280 emergency responders. Replacing this outdated and ineffective radio network is critical to all
00:01:10.160 emergency services throughout the province. When Ottawa was shaken by the tragic tornadoes,
00:01:16.320 our hard-working and dedicated frontline officers and emergency responders were obstructed from
00:01:23.040 performing their duties safely and effectively due to the frequent outages that affected
00:01:29.340 the PSRN on a daily basis.
00:01:32.280 In an emergency situation, Mr. Speaker, regardless of where it is in the province, communication
00:01:37.360 between our frontline and emergency responders is a key component to ensuring public safety
00:01:43.720 and to also keep our emergency responders safe.
00:01:53.040 Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for his response.
00:01:56.700 It's reassuring to know that our government for the people, under Premier Ford's leadership,
00:02:01.060 is taking the necessary steps to ensure that public safety is enhanced and restored throughout the province.
00:02:07.060 Our hard-working and dedicated frontline officers and emergency personnel deserve to have the tools they need to keep all of Ontario's communities safe.
00:02:15.860 Minister, as you know, frontline officers and emergency personnel throughout the province rely upon Ontario's public safety radio network.
00:02:25.140 There has been constant concern over smaller, rural and northern communities like Richmond, Metcalf and Osgoode
00:02:30.680 when it comes to having the necessary tools and resources to perform their duties safely and effectively.
00:02:36.780 To the Minister, could you please explain how modernizing the public safety radio network will help those living in smaller, rural and northern communities?
00:02:44.900 in my riding of Carleton and across this great province.
00:02:49.260 Thank you for that very good question.
00:02:53.780 Let me start off by saying that the Ontario Public Safety Radio Network
00:02:58.300 is relied upon by more than 38,000 emergency responders throughout the province.
00:03:04.180 It is the largest, most complex net in all of North America,
00:03:09.180 but it was one of the last ones that has been left to comply with the P25 standard in North America.
00:03:17.020 This modernization project will ensure that there are more than 38,000 frontline officers and first responders,
00:03:23.460 including OPP officers, paramedics, hospital staff, fire services, provincial highway maintenance staff,
00:03:30.580 and even the province's conservation officers can count on communications infrastructure,
00:03:35.580 infrastructure, network and equipment they need when they respond to emergencies.
00:03:41.860 This project will assist our hard-working frontline officers and emergency responders
00:03:46.560 throughout the province becoming better equipped to keep our communities and families and businesses
00:03:52.300 safe.