N.B. RCMP says missing information in emergency message due to Alert Ready 'malfunction'

An RCMP vehicle seen in New Brunswick.

New Brunswick RCMP said an emergency message issued this week with missing information wasn’t caused by any error on its end.

On Wednesday, an Alert Ready message was sent to smartphone users in the Cloverdale area, near Hartland, advising residents to shelter in place and avoid the region due to a report of gunshots.

An Alert Ready message was also broadcast on television in other parts of New Brunswick, but did not mention Cloverdale nor any information about the incident’s location.

“After extensive review, the New Brunswick RCMP has confirmed that RCMP staff followed the Alert Ready system policies and procedures required for entering information before launching the alert, and that the information entered was complete,” said New Brunswick RCMP Cpl. Hans Ouellette, in a written statement Friday evening.

“The information that was missing in certain broadcasts mediums has been attributed to a malfunction of the Alert Ready broadcasting system, which is not owned or maintained by the RCMP.”

In response, Pelmorex, which distributes the alerts to wireless providers and broadcasters, said its National Alert Aggregation System and Dissemination was working properly on Wednesday.

“We can confirm that the NAAD System worked as it was intended and that the alert issued by the RCMP did include information about the location of the situation,” said Martin Bélanger, Pelmorex’s director of public alerting, in a written statement late Friday. “We are working with our broadcasting partners, who play an important role in distributing alerts to the public, to further investigate why the alert content was not broadcasted in its entirety.”

New Brunswick RCMP said it would work with the New Brunswick government and Pelmorex “to assist them in rectifying the issue.”

To date, three Alert Ready messages have been issued in New Brunswick this year.

For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.