Several police services in Canada experienced temporary 911 line outages on Thursday morning, with many services resolving the issue within an hour or two.
Reports of disruptions came from cities like Toronto, Ottawa, London, Ont., and Waterloo, Ont., prompting authorities to advise residents to use non-emergency lines for urgent situations.
The Ontario Provincial Police noted intermittent 911 problems in parts of the province, while the Surete du Quebec mentioned technical difficulties impacting certain call transfers.
By approximately 7:30 a.m. ET, most services confirmed the restoration of their 911 systems.
A spokesperson for Montreal police explained that a telephone carrier responsible for 911 experienced the outage, which could lead to calls being redirected to police services in other regions.
In Nova Scotia, intermittent 911 issues were said to potentially affect cellphone and VoIP users, while Saint John, N.B., reported 911 unavailability on cellphones but maintained services for landlines.
The Nova Scotia government highlighted reports of cellular carriers struggling to connect to 911 nationwide, attributing the problem to telecommunications carrier networks rather than the provincial 911 system itself.
The root cause of the outage remains unknown, and residents were cautioned against testing the system by dialing 911 to prevent disruptions to emergency response operations.
