911 service restored after three-hour outage outside Winnipeg

Manitobans outside Winnipeg were unable to get through to 911 to request police, fire or ambulance service for more than three hours Wednesday after a fibre optic line was severed.

Telecom provider Bell Canada, which runs Manitoba’s 911 network, said the disruption affected calls routed to the public safety answering point in Brandon.

“This PSAP serves most of the province outside the Winnipeg area,” Bell spokesperson Elise von Scheel wrote in an email to the Free Press.

The Brandon Police Service announced it was affected by a 911 outage shortly after 1 p.m. Bell sent a notice shortly after 4:10 p.m. to announce 911 service had been restored after a “third-party cable cut” caused the outage.

“Both wireless and wireline emergency call services are available again and the affected public safety answering point in Brandon is reconnected,” the update said. “We thank Manitobans for their patience as we work to address the damaged infrastructure.”

Bell did not say where in Manitoba the fibre cut occurred, nor did it identify the “third party” or how the problem was fixed. It was not known how many callers were unable to get through to 911.

Bell had advised Manitobans to call their local police, fire or ambulance department’s direct 10-digit phone number or go directly to the nearest fire station, police station, or hospital emergency room if they were unable to get through to 911.

The RCMP told people to call its 24-7 emergency line if 911 wasn’t available. Shared Health, which operates ambulance service in rural Manitoba, told people to call the Manitoba Transportation Co-ordination Centre if they couldn’t get through to 911.

An emergency notification — similar to those issued during tornado warnings or Amber Alerts — was sent to some Manitoba cellphones shortly before 2:45 p.m.

Brandon’s public safety answering point is one of two in Manitoba. The other is in Winnipeg. Winnipeg’s police, fire and paramedic services were not affected by the outage.

Brandon’s emergency services were notified “quickly” after the outage began, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said.

“It’s a great concern. I imagine Bell is extremely concerned about it, and so are we,” he said before service was restored. “People really need 911. It’s an important service, so we do want to have it on at all times. We do want to make sure it’s up and running as fast as possible.”

Police services, fire departments, health authorities and municipalities published advisories on social media to make residents aware of the outage and alternative ways to seek help.

Gimli fire Chief Mike Chudd published a post on the department’s Facebook page encouraging people to report fires or vehicle collisions by calling a local number until 911 service resumed.

“People that are in need of assistance, if they’re trying to call 911 because word hasn’t gotten out that could be a bit of an issue,” he told the Free Press shortly after the outage was reported.

“It’s always concerning when you have emergency services being affected, where response time means everything and it could be a matter of life and limb at stake.”

Messages were sent to thousands of residents who signed up for an emergency notification system through the Rural Municipality of Gimli, Chudd said.

Bell notified the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission about the outage, which is required, said CRTC spokeswoman Mirabella Salem.

“The CRTC expects an update once the issue has been resolved and Bell will be required to provide a post-outage report within 14 days of resolution,” Salem wrote in an email.

Smaller 911 outages have occurred in Manitoba in the last couple of years.

More than 50 people couldn’t get through because of a Bell MTS service outage in April, the company reported to the CRTC, the national telecoms regulator. Bell said a power failure and surveillance tools that didn’t trigger alarms were to blame for that outage.

The family of Fisher Branch resident Dean Switzer, 55, was unable to get through to 911 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in March 2025. They were unaware their Telus service was not working.

Telus blamed a Bell equipment failure. Bell said the issue stemmed from the Telus side of the network.

Manitoba Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz criticized Bell and its communication with Manitobans and the provincial government after past outages.

“On this particular occasion, they did in fact contact my office right away and have made us aware of the situation,” he said.

Moroz wants Bell to be transparent about causes of 911 outages and the steps taken to try to prevent them from happening again.

“There have been entirely too many of these incidents in the last number of months, and we’re deeply concerned about it,” he said. “We’re really anxious to ensure Manitobans can be confident 911 service is there when they need it.”

Telecoms are federally regulated, and the province has no authority over them to force things to happen, Moroz said.

In June, Bell said Manitoba will be ready to switch to a modern, next generation 911 network by the end of 2026.

All emergency call centres must be ready to provide next generation 911 voice and text messaging services by the end of March 2027 as directed by the CRTC.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca