After a unanimous vote at their Mar. 10 meeting, Smithers is signing onto the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako’s (RDBN) new Mass Notification System Agreement.
The service, which was previously provided for the Town by Everbridge Inc, will now be provided by Voyent Alert!, which provides similar services to a number of municipalities across the province.
As part of the agreement between the RDBN will be responsible for maintaining the contact and providing training resources to participating municipalities as requested, as well as “ensuring operational readiness” of the system.
In response to a question from Deputy Mayor Gladys Atrill on how the system will be rolled out, Fire Chief Keith Stecko said that one of the benefits of the system is the ease of transferring over relevant information from the old system.
“What we’re going to be able to do is import all the existing contacts that we have established over this time … into the new [system],” said Stecko.
“Our templates as well as our whitepages and everything as it sits right now should transfer over.”
The agreement will begin on April 1 and runs until Mar. 31, 2025.
The Town has advised Everbridge Inc. that the Town will be terminating its option to renew the contract it has with the provider.