Ottawa 9-1-1 service misses call response time target

Ottawa’s 9-1-1 system did not meet its call answer response time target last year, despite a significant drop in the number of calls to the emergency system.

A report for Ottawa’s emergency preparedness and protective services committee shows there were 384,330 calls to Ottawa’s 9-1-1 system in 2024, down from 411,617 calls to 9-1-1 in 2023. It was the first time since 2020 that there were fewer calls to 9-1-1.

The Ottawa Police Service oversees the 9-1-1 system in Ottawa.

Staff say while the Ottawa Police Service met most key service standards in 2024, it did not meet the call response target of answering 97 per cent of calls within six seconds.

The report says 91 per cent of 9-1-1 calls were answered within six seconds last year.

“Staffing pressures were cited as the primary cause,” staff said.

It was the fourth straight year the 9-1-1 service did not meet the call response target.

“From 2021 to 2023, performance results were 86 per cent, 81 per cent, and 89 per cent, respectively. While the 2024 performance show improvement over the previous year, they occurred during a period of reduced call volume,” staff said. “In contrast, the higher volume in 2023 was partly attributed to a software.”

The City of Ottawa is finalizing a Service Review of 9-1-1 call intake operations, with staff saying the city is considering adopting the National Emergency Number Association call answer standards of 90 per cent of calls answered within 15 seconds and 95 per cent of calls within 20 seconds.

“These benchmarks are widely adopted across the emergency services sector and are intended to support consistent and comparable performance measurement,” staff said. “In 2024, the Ottawa Police Service met the NENA standard for 9-1-1 call response.”

Calls for service

Ottawa’s 9-1-1 system received an average of 1,053 calls a day in 2024.

The report shows 63 per cent of 9-1-1 calls were for the Ottawa Police Service, down from 67 per cent of calls in 2023 and 66 per cent in 2021. A total of 33 per cent of calls were for paramedics last year, while three per cent of calls were for Ottawa Fire Services.

Eighty-two per cent of 9-1-1 calls were from cellphones in 2024, while 11 per cent came from residential landlines.