‘We need to connect this province’: Spotty cell service impacting rural Manitoba fire department

A Manitoba community says spotty cell coverage is impacting its ability to respond to emergencies. Danton Unger has more.

A rural fire department is sounding the alarm over spotty cell service it warns is impacting its ability to respond to emergencies.

Roger Gillis, a training officer with the St. Laurent Fire Department, said he’s been hearing from residents concerned about the poor reception in the area.

“They live in constant fear that they won’t be able to make that 911 call when they have to,” he told CTV News.

Gillis said there are massive ‘dead spots’ in the community and along Highway 6 where there is no service at all. He said in the rest of the area, the service is intermittent at best.

All this is impacting his fire department’s ability to receive and respond to calls.

“When our cell phone service is intermittent, sometimes we don’t get the calls,” he said. “We’ll have members that miss calls totally and say they never got any communication at all.”

The area reeve, Richard Chartrand, said residents are getting frustrated with ongoing issues.

“They would like to see somebody do something, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said.

There are two cell towers that service the community. Chartrand said the RM is working with an Ontario-based company, SLI, which builds cell towers and leases them to telecom companies.

“They keep saying that they’re trying to deal with the issue, but they seem to be hitting roadblocks as well,” Chartrand told CTV News.

He said SLI has the land ready to go to build the new towers, but so far, no telecom companies will agree to lease them.

Chartrand said the situation has left residents feeling like their concerns are going unanswered – both literally and figuratively.

These issues aren’t unique to St. Laurent.

“The lack of connectivity throughout the province is a real public safety issue,” said Kathy Valentino, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

Valentino, a city councillor in Thompson, said she knows firsthand how unreliable cell service can be in rural and northern areas of the province.

She said the association has been calling for the provincial government to do a comprehensive connectivity strategy to see where exactly the gaps exist. This information could then be brought to the CRTC.

“We need to connect this province. It’s time.”

Minister of Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Ian Bushie said the province is advocating for action from the federal government.

“We want to be able to have that discussion as to how we can encourage, how we can incentivize, and how we can really bring the telecom companies to the table with the Feds as well,” he said.