The lifeline of the region’s public-safety infrastructure and backbone of emergency response in Greater Victoria has hummed quietly in the background for years.
That may be about to change.
The Capital Region Emergency Service Telecommunications system (CREST) is about to move into its new home, a $16-million disaster-resistant building in Langford.
Under construction for the past year, the 13,355-square-foot building is in the final stages of completion, and its gleaming 47-metre silver monopole is ready to relay transmissions from around the south Island.
The building is more than a storage facility for gear and a home for the complex telecommunications equipment that relay transmissions between first responders.
It’s also a symbol of the region’s ability to stand on its own.
Gord Horth, who later this year will step aside as the general manager of the service after 18 years building it out, said the new facility is essential, given the increased frequency and intensity of crises — both human-made and those designed by Mother Nature — and the region’s exploding growth.
“We’re also on an island. Help is not coming from the mainland or Ottawa any time soon in a big event. So we have to be self-sustaining, and that was one of the prime drivers of the new post-disaster operational facilities,” he said.
The building will allow CREST to consolidate its assets and people under one roof. It also solves a storage problem.
CREST is currently spread across three facilities. Administration and operations were based out of a one-storey office building just off the Trans-Canada Highway in Langford. Down the road is a warehouse with gear, and the master site — the brains of the network — sits on the third floor of the RCMP building on the West Shore.
Horth said not only is CREST running out of space as the system and its needs expand, but the RCMP are in dire need of expanding their facility and need to reclaim their floor space.
The new facility is designed and built to withstand anything from whatever climate change dishes out to the long-anticipated “big one” earthquake.
The facility, built on an acre of land at the City Gate site off McCallum Road in Langford across from Costco, is meant to help first responders continue operating with minimal interruption during a major emergency.
All computer servers and spare equipment will be held in one safe and secure place, while personnel — about a dozen technicians and engineers who quietly keep the system operating — will be in a building that can withstand a disaster.
The protection of spare equipment and operational infrastructure is essential, given that replacement parts and gear can often be weeks, if not months, away, said Horth, noting the kind of gear they use can’t be picked up on a Costco run.
CREST is poised to take possession of the site in late summer and hopes to fully move in by the fall.
The new facility is the final piece of the puzzle, after CREST recently completed a four-year, $24.5-million upgrade that moved the system onto a fully digital platform that meets world standards for public safety.
That phased-in upgrade included new transmission towers, refurbishing older ones, and programming and deploying 3,000 new radios for the 50 emergency-response agencies in the region.
Horth said the digital network has been a game-changer for the region’s six police departments, 24 fire departments, paramedics and other groups that use it, such as B.C. Transit, security at the University of Victoria, security at the legislature and the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.
Previously, the agencies were unable to communicate with each other, which meant they couldn’t co-ordinate a response to an emergency.
Police, fire and paramedics had for years complained about communication dead zones in the region, distorted messages and other failures.
Victoria police complained of spotty coverage and poor reception in the downtown core and underground parking areas that forced officers to patrol in pairs, because of concerns that they would not be able to call for backup if radios failed in an emergency.
In 2013, then Victoria police chief Jamie Graham called a system-wide failure of the radio system a “catastrophe,” after it left all Greater Victoria emergency responders without dispatch services for 40 minutes
At the time, Horth said both the main audio switch and the backup switch at its master site had failed, adding it was the first system-wide failure the radio system had experienced in 10 years and 100,000 hours of operation.
The system has since migrated to a digital P25 radio system from an analogue-digital VHF system, which means communication is clearer. The new radios reduce background noise and environmental interference to improve communication within buildings and when conditions are less than ideal.
“When people look at the things that go wrong at events, communication is usually the No. 1 thing — it’s always key,” said Horth. “Being able to offer a digital network that really provides great coverage and capacity when you have significant events is important.”
Al Marston, operations manager at CREST, said the system is like the glue that binds the responders together.
“It lets all these agencies work together — it really is seamless, and it lets them get on with their job. They know they don’t have to worry about their communications,” Marston said, adding there is a dedicated team behind the scenes that ensures the system remains robust and responsive.
Marston said they are vigilant and can often anticipate problems before they happen and take action to ensure there is no disruption in service.
“We’ve got the diagnostic tools for us to be alert to when there is a problem on the system. We can see if something needs a repair, the batteries are low, or we’re getting intermittent signals … we can get a part and get out and repair or replace a part before it becomes chronic and problematic.”
He said they handle 10 million transmissions a year — about 1,000 every hour — and can ramp up as needed and grow as the region demands.
The busiest day is Canada Day, when they usually handle about 35,000 transmissions.
The bottom line, said Horth, is knowing the agencies can count on the system.
“The network is a unifying force that serves all first responders and provides a great communication tool to these guys [for whom] comms is not their No. 1 priority,” he said. “They’re out there doing their thing, and there’s this specialized group, CREST, that maintains the system so it’s not something they have to worry about.”
First responders have been singing CREST’s praises since the move to the digital platform.
“It’s definitely the most powerful tool that I have,” said Staff Sgt. Shawn Robson of Victoria police. “No one is ever going to say that they have a tool that’s more important than their radio. It’s everything.”
Robson said they can count on the service to be responsive and clear when they need it most, whether that’s in an emergency or just co-ordinating a response to a protest.
He said what’s particularly important is the ability to communicate with other agencies.
Robson is a public-order commander whose team includes firefighters, paramedics and police from other municipalities.
“So at any given time, at any protest in the Victoria area, we have all of these different agencies working together, and prior to this, we literally couldn’t talk to each other,” he said. “It was absolutely terrible and super-dangerous.”
He also remembers when the system wasn’t so reliable.
When he first came from Vancouver 20 years ago, they had to incorporate contingencies in operational plans to cover situations where communications didn’t work.
“It was really a problem. Every time I push that button [on the radio], it needs to work,” he said. “We’ve already got enough things that we can’t rely on.”
Maegan Thompson, assistant chief with Saanich Fire Department, agreed that having a reliable and well-maintained emergency radio communications network is essential.
“The better we can communicate with our crews, [that] ensures enhanced public safety and responder safety,” she said, noting it creates peace of mind in the department, whose members have learned they can rely on CREST to handle any issues.
“[CREST is] so efficient. They understand our business, that we’re 24-7-365 and so are they — any time we need service or support, it’s immediate,” she said.
Thompson, whose background is in emergency management, said if there’s ever a breakdown in an emergency, it’s almost always related to communications.
“Knowing they’re building this post-disaster facility that will ensure their organizational resilience gives us great peace of mind,” she said. “When we have a major event in our region, we will rely on radios even more than we do day-to-day.”
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