The National Public Alerting System (NPAS; ), branded as Alert Ready (), is the national warning system in Canada, broadcast to Canadian television, radio, and wireless devices.
The system consists of infrastructure and standards for the presentation and distribution of public alerts issued by federal or provincial/territorial government authorities (particularly public safety authorities)—such as for weather emergencies, Amber alerts, and other emergency notifications—through all broadcasters and last-mile distributors in the affected region, including television stations, radio stations, television providers, and mobile networks in the affected region. The system is based upon the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP; called the Canadian Profile of the Common Alerting Protocol, CAP-CP), while wireless alerts (Wireless Public Alerting System) use a Canadian variant of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) standard adopted in the United States.
Alert Ready officially launched on 31 March 2015; it distributes alerts to broadcasters and other parties through its central technical infrastructure—called the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system—which was developed and is operated by Pelmorex Media—owner of The Weather Network. Pelmorex is also responsible for public awareness campaigns surrounding the system. By order of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), all terrestrial radio and television stations, digital multichannel television providers, and mobile network operators using LTE technology or newer, are required to participate in the NPAS.
Alert Ready has faced criticism, particularly due to wireless alerts being handled under a blanket category with no opt-outs on its smartphones running unmodified operating systems (as opposed to the severity-based system used by the U.S. WEA system), and criticism over Amber alerts (particularly in Ontario) being issued province-wide rather than geographically targeted to relevant regions. In April 2020, the RCMP faced criticism for not understanding and being slow to work with local officials in use of the system to warn of an active gunman, which had attacked multiple locations in the province of Nova Scotia.
Until 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada also maintained Weatheradio Canada, which transmitted weather information and hazard alerts. Unlike Alert Ready, it utilized Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME)—the same protocol used by NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System in the United States.
History
Proposals
Various attempts had been made in the 20th and 21st centuries to establish a public alert system in Canada, by both departments of government and by television broadcasters.
In 1992, Alberta implemented a provincial emergency alert system known as the Emergency Public Warning System (EPWS); its development was spurred by an F4 tornado that had hit the Edmonton area on 31 July 1987, killing 27 people. The system was originally operated by the CKUA Radio Network under contract with the province.
Under the 1995 Federal Policy for Emergencies, Industry Canada led the effort for coordinating the provision of an emergency broadcasting service, based on the facilities and services of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Environment Canada and, as necessary, privately owned networks and stations.
In 2001, Pelmorex, owners of The Weather Network and MétéoMédia, applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for an amendment to their licenses to encompass a mandatory "All Channel Alert" system, requiring all television providers to relay emergency messages on behalf of governments across all of their channels. The service would have used proprietary hardware developed by Pelmorex, and would have been funded primarily by a 13 cent increase in carriage fees for the two channels. However, its initial proposal was denied by the CRTC, citing the need for consultation with broadcasters, television providers, and other parties on how the system would be designed, along with its costs. There were also concerns over the means in which the system was to be implemented technologically, and that the system was not inclusive to the visually impaired because Pelmorex only specified use of a text crawl, without an audio component.
Establishment of such a system in a voluntary form was hampered by CRTC rules at the time, which required television providers to obtain consent from broadcasters before they could overlay emergency notifications onto their programming. In 2005, CRTC called for proposals regarding a national alerting system; Pelmorex and the CBC submitted proposals for a national system, while Bell ExpressVu submitted a proposal requesting the removal of the consent requirement. The CBC's proposal would have fed alerts via satellite to decoders installed at local CBC Radio transmitters. It would have allowed television providers to participate on a voluntary basis by installing decoders of their own, if the aforementioned consent requirement were removed. All three applicants promised to adopt the standardized alerting specifications that were developed by the government-backed CANALERT initiative.
While broadcasters and governments supported the proposals for a national alerting system, CTV, Canwest Global and CHUM Limited showed concerns surrounding the Pelmorex proposal, as it would be operated by a for-profit venture that would have the power to override their signals with third-party content, and be redundant to alerts already provided as a public service by some broadcasters. Shaw and Rogers argued that the Pelmorex system was less cost-efficient than the CBC's proposal. It was also disputed whether the CRTC could even order the mandatory distribution of the service, as the CRTC does not regulate alphanumeric content because it is not considered television programming.
In 2007, the CRTC removed the consent requirement to ease the adoption of voluntary alerting by broadcast distribution undertakings, but stated that it would reconsider the possibility of a mandatory alert system in the future.
Development
In 2009, the CRTC approved a proposal by Pelmorex to grant an 9.1 (1)(h) order of must-carry status to The Weather Network and MétéoMédia on digital television services. As part of the proposal, Pelmorex committed to developing a "national aggregator and distributor" (NAAD) of localized emergency alert messages compliant with the Common Alerting Protocol. Pelmorex established a governance council for the system, including representatives of the broadcasting industry, federal government, members of the Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM), and the Canadian Association for Public Alerting and Notification, to oversee its operations.
The NAAD System was officially launched in 2010, becoming the technical infrastructure for the NPAS initiative.
In a 2011 renewal of the must-carry status, the CRTC praised Pelmorex's work, considering the NAAD system to be "an essential element of a national public alerting system," and expressed an expectation for all broadcasters to voluntarily participate in distributing its alerts. However, as a condition of the renewal, the CRTC ordered Pelmorex to reach agreements with all federal, provincial and territorial emergency management officials to allow them to transmit messages through the system, implement the capability of processing "broadcast intrusive alerts" through the system, and develop a public awareness campaign surrounding the alert system with a budget of at least $1 million per-year. In June of the same year, Alberta replaced the EPWS with Alberta Emergency Alert, which distributes alerts on radio and television, as well as online and via social networking services.
Environment Canada, the Canadian Council of Emergency Management Organizations, and the provinces of Manitoba and New Brunswick endorsed the potential use of the NAAD framework as a backend for a mandatory public alerting system. On 26 May 2013, SOREM published a "Common Look and Feel" specification for alerts. Developed with guidance from the broadcasting industry, it describes how and when alerts are to be distributed and presented to the public. As part of a license renewal in May 2013, CBC Radio agreed to implement an alerting system using NAAD by 31 December 2014.
On 27 February 2014, the CRTC issued a proposal to mandate participation in the national alert system by all television and radio broadcasters, and cable and satellite companies. The commission felt that owing to the importance of the endeavour, broadcasters had displayed an inconsistent level of commitment to implement it voluntarily. This mandate was passed by the CRTC later that year through regulatory amendments.
The Wireless Public Alerting System (WPAS) initiative was also launched that year as a three-year pilot project led by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, in collaboration with Defence Research Development Canada and Public Safety Canada, with the purpose to develop the use of LTE-based technology for emergency wireless public alerting.
Alert Ready On 29 August 2014, the CRTC issued a regulatory order mandating that all Canadian broadcasters—including over-the-air television broadcasters, radio broadcasters, and broadcast distribution undertakings—begin participating in the National Public Alerting System by 31 March 2015. Community, campus, and aboriginal broadcasters were given an extended deadline of 31 March 2016 to implement the system.
In 2015, through television and radio, Pelmorex launched a public awareness and education campaign about the new emergency alerting service. This campaign was branded Alert Ready (French: En Alerte), launching on 31 March 2015. Alert Ready is now the public-facing brand name for the NPAS initiative.
Bell Satellite TV, MTS, Shaw Direct, and Sogetel did not fully participate in the system upon the deadline, as some of their customers utilized legacy set-top boxes that cannot be updated to support the display of public alerts. They were granted a six-month extension for the implementation deadline by the CRTC in order to address these issues, under the condition that they inform customers that they cannot receive public alerts unless they update their hardware, and were required to present bi-weekly progress reports to the CRTC. Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais criticized the providers for their inability to properly implement the system, stating that the commission "will not hide our disappointment that certain television service providers are not ready, despite having been given more than enough time [to implement it.]"
In December 2015, the CRTC granted an indefinite extension of the exceptions and reporting guidelines to Bell, Shaw Direct, and MTS until they completely phase out hardware that is not compatible with the NPAS. The CRTC felt that the providers had made a good-faith effort in informing customers of their inability to receive public alerts and offering hardware replacements. Bell reported that some customers had declined their offering of a free set-top box replacement as they did not want to participate in receiving alerts. MTS discontinued its legacy "Classic TV" service due to its inability to display alerts, and urged its remaining subscribers to migrate to its current "Ultimate TV" (now Bell MTS Fibe TV) platform.
Provincial tests began to improve public awareness of the new system, such as in Manitoba, and Quebec. One of the tests in the province on 19 May 2015, simulating a tornado emergency in the Centre-du-Québec region, surprised many people tuned in to radio or TV in the region, leading some to believe that there was an actual tornado emergency.
Launch of mobile alerting