City delays new radio system for police and fire services until 2018

The Ottawa Police Service and Ottawa Fire Services won’t switch over to a new radio system until some point in 2018 as the city and its contractor continue to resolve the bugs hampering the full rollout.

It means for several more months the two emergency services, which make up a large portion of radio users in Ottawa, will continue using a legacy system that dates back to the mid-1990s and was declared end-of-life in 2015.

Earlier this year, the city adjusted its plans to have police and firefighters on the new radio system by the third quarter of 2017.

However, the new system still isn’t reliable enough to finish the implementation, which was originally scheduled to be complete in 2015.

When January 2018 rolls around, the city will have been working to launch the new radio system for three years.

Pierre Poirier, the city’s manager of security and emergency management, told the Citizen on Thursday the main challenge continues to be running the new radio system through a dispatch system. Radio-to-radio communication has been working fine, he said.

The contract for the new radio system allows for 5,900 radios. Between 2,500 and 3,000 still need to be transitioned to the new system.

The city continues to work with police and firefighters on determining a date in 2018 when they will switch to the new radios, taking into account the training requirements and other busy operations. The city doesn’t want to launch the radio system when there will be a high call volume.

The switchover will include the city-run secondary radio system for the Ottawa Paramedic Service, used for specific operations. Paramedics use a provincial system for their main radio communications.

Bell won a city contract in 2013 to provide and operate the city’s new radio communications system for 10 years. The city is paying $5.5 million annually to Bell under the deal.

The city has spent more than $10 million on equipment for the new radio system.

Bell is also responsible to make sure the legacy radio system is running properly while it works to activate the new system.

The legacy system has been working well even though it’s two years out of date, Poirier said.

The city has seen an improvement in its relationship with Bell compared to the beginning of the year when the city was looking into what legal recourse was available in the new contract.

Poirier said the radio project is in a “positive” state, with the city and Bell working well together on implementing the system.

The city has so far been able to run two radio systems during a hectic celebration year.

Poirier said there were no problems operating different radio systems on Canada Day and during other Ottawa 2017 events.

Other departments that use the city radio system include public works and environmental services, public health and OC Transpo. Outside agencies, such as the Ottawa International Airport and the Canadian Border Services Agency, are also clients of the city radio system.

The delay of the new radios is helping Ottawa police force manage its budget in 2017. It means the police force can save $300,000 on radio fees and use the extra funds to help offset a projected $7.4-million deficit.

The police force believes it can find enough savings, in addition to the delayed radio costs, to knock the projected deficit down to $1.5 million.