When Halifax Water wanted to run the voice at the end of January on a boiling water request that affected some 200,000 clients, one of the resources he resorted was was the city’s emergency notifications platform, HFXalert.
“While this is a subscription -based system, it is widely used and admits to transmit the message,” said the utility in a February report issued to regulators.
But at the time of January 21, 2025, Alert, only about 40,000 of the approximately 500,000 residents of the city registered on the platform.
The way in which Halifax Water communicated with the residents about the boiling water order was, in part, the issue of two blunt emails that a municipal councilor sent to a couple of Walifax water officials, spokesman Jeff Myrick and general manager Kenda Mackenzie, on the morning of Tuesday, January 21, 2025.
District 16 Coun. Jean St-Amand described the utility approach “Another failure in our critical emergency communications apparatus”, and said: “There are serious questions to answer here.”
CBC News obtained emails through an application for access to information. Bedford-Wentworth councilor highlighted the problems, in part, with the way in which New Scotland Power notifies the usefulness of water from planned interruptions and how Halifax Water communicates with residents about service problems.
“I was really trying to get to the essence of what I felt that I could have done better and why I was asking the questions I was asking [was] Because it was a reflection of what residents asked me, “St-Amand told CBC.
The notice was implemented after a planned interruption by Nueva Scotia Power caused a problem at the Lake Pockwock Water Treatment Center. The water continued to be treated, but lacked chlorine disinfection. Although the interruption was originally reported that allowed the non -chlorinated water to enter the system for approximately 30 minutes, the report presented to the regulators said that it was actually 66 minutes.
It was the second time in less than a year that was in place a generalized order of boiling water for a strip of the regional municipality of Halifax. The first incident, on Canada’s day, ended lasting 40 hours And they also affected customers who obtain their water from the Pockwock facilities.
Pockwock serves approximately half of Halifax Water customers
Pockwock is the largest treatment for Halifax Water, which offers water to approximately half of its customers.
The January Water Order caused interruptions throughout the municipality, which caused some companies to close and force some surgeries to be rescheduled.
The order also attracted scathing criticism of the Prime Minister.
“This is a horrible situation, a complete shame,” Tim Houston told CTV News. “Shame about Halifax water.”
Interruption notifications
If it were not for a Halifax water employee out of service, it is possible that the public services company has not learned about the planned blackout of New Scotland before the energy came out.
While residents such as St-Amand received automated phone messages from Nova Scotia Power about planned interruption, which would be presented at 10:30 pm on Monday, January 20, Autodial number in the Halifax Water Pockwock installation file was inactive.
Around 8:35 pm, a Halifax Water employee out of service saw a publication on social networks on planned interruption and sent a text message to an operator in service asking if they knew it. The personnel member in service began taking measures to prepare.
In one of St-Amand’s emails to Mackenzie and Myrick, he wondered what the power of Nueva Scotia was required to notify Halifax Water on interruptions.
Mackenzie told CBC that some of the telephone numbers that had the power of New Scotland was available or that appropriate staff members did not respond or were not answered. As a result of the January incident, he said, New Scotland Power now calls a 24 -hour number in Halifax Water to guarantee direct contact with the staff.
Notifying residents
While the city has its own emergency notifications platform, HFXalert, users must register to receive alerts, which can come by text message, email or notification of the application.
According to the province’s emergency alert system, messages are automatically sent to people’s cell phones: they do not have to register to receive them. Both the provincial system and HFXalert can address people geographically in specific areas.
In one of the Electronic St-Amand emails, he said the residents asked about the lack of an emergency alert throughout the region.
Failures in social networks
“Social networks are completely inappropriate for the task, especially since residents can follow their morning routine, using this water now at risk, without having seen anything from the Halifax water until after the fact, if it did,” St-Amand wrote on January 21.
In mid -May, Halifax Water had around 5,000 followers on Facebook and around 8,200 in X (previously Twitter).
Mackenzie told CBC that the threshold to use the provincial alert system is when there is an imminent threat to life.
During the order of the day of boiling on Canada’s day, alerts were issued through HFXalert and provincial systems.
To run the voice on the request for boiling water on the morning of January 21, Halifax Water trusted its social media channels, the public service realizes that it sent to the media and interviews with them, and emails sent to the councilors of the area. An HFXalert was issued at 6:45 am
The alert system has a number of subscribers “unfortunately low”, says St-Amand
That day, there were 40,141 HFXalert subscribers, which St-Amand told CBC is “unfortunately low.” Today, the number of subscribers is less than 44,500.
Mackenzie said he didn’t know how few people enrolled in the service in January.
“I know that HRM continues, especially through [its] Recent emergency [Preparedness] Week, to promote the registration on the Halifax alert and expects more people to subscribe to that, “he said.
Mackenzie said the public services company issued a non -intrusive alert through the provincial system during the order to boil in January. However, these alerts only appear for users of the meteorological network application.
In one of the Electronic St-Amand emails, he said that social networks should be used as a supplement, and not as a replacement, to communicate with residents.
“I had to call my mother this morning to warn him about the boiling warning this morning, even though she is on social networks,” he wrote. “The Commission of Massive Victims criticized the police for Trust social networks for the distribution of emergency messages Because the algorithm drastically affects visibility. “
Utility looking more ways to contact customers in emergencies
St-Amand also wondered why Halifax Water could not use the information he already had at the hands of customers, such as telephone numbers and addresses, as a means to notify them.
Mackenzie said that, due to privacy laws, Halifax Water cannot use customer contact information for purposes other than billing due to the consent obtained by utility. She said Halifax Water is looking for other ways to contact customers during emergencies.
When asked to comment on St-Amand’s criticism, Mackenzie said there is room for the public services company to improve how residents are communicated.
“We are taking that feedback and that contribution to try to explore different mechanisms or different ways that we can build … It is still a job in progress, but we are taking into account all those comments,” he said.
On Monday, municipal staff told councilors that Halifax Water now has the ability to send their own intrusive provincial alerts without waiting for HRM.
“Now they have a policy based on the comments received from those previous two [boil-water] Incidents, and I think it is quite well established at this time, “said Bill Moore, Halifax Public Security Commissioner, during a meeting of the Executive Committee.
Cao Cathie O’Toole also said that the provincial government is working to create new Scotland recommendations for local governments and public services on how and when alerts for similar incidents of boiling water are emitted.
