Citing the regularity of severe weather events, as well as frequent incidents of violence or civil unrest across the country, the City of St. Albert is looking to spend about $100,000 over the next five years on a new internal emergency communications system.
“Currently the city has no technology-based application other than emails to support mass notification and emergency check-ins to all city staff in an event of any emergency response hazards such as an active shooter, extreme weather, flooding (and more),” reads a Notice of Intent to Award (NOA) published by the city earlier this month.
“The lack of an emergency mass notification system from one platform that is scalable to either a small number of city staff, location-based or city-wide, depending on the situation, is problematic.”
NOAs must be published in the event that the city intends to award a contract to a predetermined private or public company, rather than having an open bidding process. When NOAs are published, other companies may still submit bids for the contract; however, these companies must meet and prove the same capabilities as the predetermined company.
“Currently in use by municipalities within Alberta, the city is intending to procure the Everbridge Mass Notification System,” the NOA states. The notice also says the city expects to enter into a five-year contract at a cost of about $20,000 per year.
Everbridge, based in the United States, is a software company that offers multiple platforms for businesses and governments to manage emergency events and digital crises.
Strathcona County, Lamont County, and the City of Red Deer are all examples of municipalities that have contracts with Everbridge.
“Everbridge provides a next-generation critical event management platform that will help the City of St. Albert to be better prepared, make better decisions, and respond quickly and confidently during disruptive events,” the city's NOA reads.
In an email, Bendfeld laid out a hypothetical situation for which the city would use the Everbridge system. During an incident at a city facility such as St. Albert Place, staff would be able to notify all city employees about the event, and request employees report about their safety.
“Everbridge's system allows for two-way communication between the sender and the end user,” Bendfeld said. “It also has a (geographic information system) function incorporated with this two-way communication as well as live polling.”
Supplementary to provincial emergency alerts
As the Everbridge system will only be used for internal communication between city staff, Bendfeld said the Alberta Emergency Alert system will remain the primary way residents are alerted about disasters or emergencies.
“If a situation required broader notification to residents, our communications team, Alberta Emergency Management Agency, or Environment Canada (depending on the type of hazard) would alert St. Albertans through the Alberta Emergency Alert tool,” Bendfeld said. “This will still be a very important tool that the city will use during emergencies.”
“Two separate platforms for notifying residents, from different organizations, could lead to message saturation or information fatigue if multiple messaging is coming from two different groups.”
