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Ministry of Ministère de la Community Safety and Sécurité communautaire et Correctional Services des Services correctionnels Office of the Bureau du Fire Marshal and commissaire des incendies et Emergency Management de la gestion des situations d'urgence

25 Morton Shulman Avenue 25, avenue Morton Shulman ON M3M 0B1 Toronto ON M3M 0B1 Tel: 647-329-1100 Tél. : 647-329-1100 Fax: 647-329-1143 Téléc. : 647-329-1143

DATE: November 20, 2018

TO: Emergency Management Coordinators

FROM: Jon Pegg Chief of Emergency Management Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management

Re: Testing on November 28, 2018

I hope this message finds you well and busy with activities and initiatives as we are in the final couple of months of 2018. It seems like only yesterday we issued the very first wireless alert through the Alert Ready System and now we are ready to test the system a second time.

On November 28, 2018, along with other provincial and territorial emergency management organizations will be issuing public test messages through Alert Ready, ’s emergency alerting system. Ontario will issue one test message to be distributed over television, radio and to compatible wireless devices at 1:55 PM EST. This will be the second live Alert Ready test this year. The first occurred during Emergency Preparedness Week in May 2018.

The Alert Ready system was developed with many partners including federal, provincial, and territorial government agencies, the broadcasting industry, wireless service providers and Pelmorex Corp (the owner of ). The Alert Ready system has enabled authorized government agencies to deliver emergency alerts to residents in Ontario during threat-to-life situations over television and radio since 2015, and to compatible wireless devices since April 2018. It is important to note that not all Ontarians will receive the test alert on their wireless device. This may occur for a variety of reasons, including device compatibility, connection to an LTE network, cell tower coverage, device software and settings.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has set the target that 50% of new devices currently available for sale in Canada must be compatible with Alert Ready. This target increases to 100% by April 2019. Over time, more devices will become compatible and more Ontarians will be able to receive emergency alerts on their wireless device.

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More than 100 emergency alerts have been successfully transmitted to Canadians over television, radio and wireless since April 2018. However, alerts have not been issued in all areas of Canada. A national test will provide an opportunity to validate the end-to- end performance and reliability of the system everywhere in Canada.

For more information, please visit alertready.ca. For further information about Alert Ready in Ontario, you can contact us at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Jon Pegg Chief of Emergency Management

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