Updates from E-Comm 9-1-1 | 911 in British Columbia

March 2026 Update

We’re pleased to share our monthly update highlighting key activities at E-Comm as we enhance our services for first responder partners and the public. View the PDF version of this update here.

Exceeding service level targets for 9-1-1, police call-taking

9-1-1 service saw 97% of calls answered in 5 seconds or less (target: 95%). Emergency police call-taking reached 92% in the Lower Mainland, and 91% on Vancouver Island (target: 88% of calls answered in 10 seconds). Non-emergency call-taking met the 80% service-level target of calls answered in 3 minutes for the Lower Mainland 85% for Vancouver Island.

Increases in call volumes

9-1-1 (+2.3%), police emergency (+2.7%) and non-emergency call volumes (8%) were all up slightly from the same period last year. Call volumes are historically lower in the first quarter of the year, peaking in the summer months.

Fire service levels remain strong

Fire call-taking reached 97% (target: 90% of calls answered in 15 seconds), continuing the trend of strong service delivery for partners. E-Comm’s fire team recently played an instrumental role coordinating the emergency response to a major structure fire in Mission at a retirement home. Support from multiple agencies was required, resulting in 142 residents being saved.

Continued reliability of radio network

4,473,050 radio transmissions were made with the 15,907 radios on E-Comm’s network in February with no disruptions. For World Radio Day (Feb 13), we featured the work of a member of our Wireless Team who built in-house tools to detect and eliminate interference on the critical public safety radio network.

Action Plan updates

E-Comm continues to implement the Action Plan in response to the independent provincial review. Below are some key recommendations we advanced this month:

Service-based costing model: E-Comm is developing a new model that will clearly show the cost of our services, change how corporate costs are allocated, and increase transparency and predictability through a 5-year outlook. The new financial model is expected to go E-Comm’s Board for review in May 2026 so that changes can be incorporated into 2027 levies.
Service catalogue and service level targets: An important step in developing the new financial model is to provide clarity on services through a service catalogue and validate the most appropriate service-level targets. We have identified potential service-level target options for the consideration of our partners.
Stakeholder and engagement framework: We have developed a new framework to begin improving our partnership and engagement with you, our local government and agency partners. An update was recently shared with partners outlining a number of upcoming engagement opportunities with a focus on service level targets and the financial model.

2025 IPSOS survey

Public confidence in E-Comm in the Lower Mainland increased five percentage points to 91% in 2025 from 86% in 2024, and near the all-time high of 92% recorded in 2017. Public awareness of E-Comm in the Lower Mainland reached an all-time high of 69% in 2025, representing a four-percentage-point increase from 65% in 2024. For 2025, we also added a survey of E-Comm across southern Vancouver Island where public awareness is at 55%, and public confidence is at 90%.

NG9-1-1 Update

In February and March, E-Comm provided briefings to the BC Association of Chiefs of Police and our Regional District Public Safety Answering Point partners on the implementation of Next Generation 9-1-1. E-Comm has made good progress towards resolving the technical issues which prevented an earlier launch. NG9-1-1 is expected to roll out before the end of this year, once technical readiness of the system is confirmed. While the transition will remain voice-only for callers this year, the changes being implemented now will enable future capabilities for emergency response.