Emergency 911 number is dialled on a phone, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in St. Louis. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jeff Roberson)
UPDATED: 12:25 p.m. — Winnipeg police have released the following statement regarding the outage:
“A further review by the WPS Communications Centre has determined that 911 calls continued to be received during the nationwide outage. Staff within the division are working with the telecommunications provider to determine whether any calls failed to come through and to identify the cause of the approximately two-and-a-half-hour service disruption.”
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Original story:
Winnipeg’s 911 service was knocked offline early Thursday morning due to an issue with the service provider.
The Winnipeg Police Service issued a public advisory just after 4 a.m. to advise that 911 lines were down and for residents to call the non-emergency number. Shortly after 5 a.m., police said the 911 system had been restored.
A spokesperson for Bell, which is the service provider for 911 service in Manitoba, told ChrisD.ca there was an issue with the next-generation 911 network that was detected at approximately 2:13 a.m. CT.
“Backup systems were brought online to route calls to emergency services while technicians investigated the outage,” the spokesperson said in an email.
“9-1-1 service is now fully restored and people with an emergency can call 9-1-1. We are investigating the root cause of the issue and will have further details once available.”
Reports suggest the outage wasn’t limited to Winnipeg only, but other regions across Canada. Police services in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick also reported brief 911 outages on Thursday.
PLEASE BE ADVISED:
Previously reported issues affecting 9-1-1 Service have been resolved.9-1-1 Service has resumed and is fully operational.
The Winnipeg Police Service would like to thank members of the public for their patience and cooperation.
— Winnipeg Police (@wpgpolice) September 17, 2026
