New call centre aims to improve 911 response in Quebec's northern communities

More residents in Nunavik will soon be served by a new emergency call centre opening in Saint-Eustache Que., just outside of Montreal.

Dispatchers will respond to 911 calls from five of Quebec's northern communities in the hopes of improving emergency response, says Ian Lafrenière, Quebec's Indigenous affairs minister. 

He made the announcement Tuesday alongside officials from the Kativik Regional Government as well as Saint-Eustache and Nunavik police.

This new call centre is an extension of a pilot project that was launched in March 2023 following the death of a police officer in Kuujjuaq in 2013. A commission into his death found emergency call service in the region needed to be improved.

The volume of calls has increased since then — highlighting the need for a dedicated space to support the volume.

Before this system, residents were often connected right to a police officer on the ground, says Shaun Longstreet, deputy chief for the Nunavik Police Service.

Using a 10-digit phone number for emergencies, residents would be calling police officers directly on their radio, in public, he says. 

"If we're out in an intervention where we have to arrest someone, and then the call comes in, we have to arrest and speak with the person and take all the information," explained Longstreet.

He says the approach is "just something that's not acceptable in 2025."

Lafrenière says the very fact that emergency calls were dispatched directly through the radio meant there wasn't always a secure line. But he says now, things are changing.

Aim to extend service to all 14 communities by 2029

The provincial government is contributing more than $4 million to the Kativik Regional Government to support this project.

At the existing call centre in Saint-Eustache, Lafrenière says three Nunavik communities were covered by this service.

Now, dispatchers will be answering 911 calls from five villages in Nunavik, which he says will soon increase to seven — with the goal of extending the service to all 14 communities by the end of 2029.

"The purpose was just to try it," said Lafrenière. "And with no surprise, it worked perfectly." 

He says dispatchers on site were specially trained with language and culture top of mind.

Many dispatchers also travelled up to Nunavik to meet with individuals from the communities to help them better understand "the realities," he says.

Other communities were consulted to take on this initiative, including Iqaluit and Cree communities, but they did not have the capacity, said Lafrenière. 

He notes that the dispatchers in Saint-Eustache speak English but if callers only speak Inuktitut, the dispatchers have a chart with helpful words and also the option of transferring the call to a translation system, he says.

"Dispatchers are excited," said Thierry Vallières, director of police in Saint-Eustache.

He says currently, about 96 per cent of calls that come in are in English. But with added stress, callers might revert to their first language of Inuktitut, which is why he says it's a priority to find more speakers to join the team soon.