OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from the Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) to broaden the use of the 8-1-1 dialing code to include access to an underground infrastructure locate service in conjunction with its current use for a non-emergency telehealth triage service.
Under the North American Numbering Plan, unique three-digit (N-1-1) codes are assigned to provide abbreviated dialing access to non-commercial services that serve the broad public interest. The Commission assigned the 8-1-1 code for access to non-urgent health care telephone triage services, also known as telehealth services. Telehealth services are provided by provincial and territorial governments through their ministries and departments of health.
In its application to the CRTC last July, the CCGA noted that much of Canada’s critical infrastructure networks that supply telecommunications, energy, gas, and water, are buried and can be damaged or disrupted during excavation. It maintained that the best way to ensure that this does not occur is to provide the public with an easily accessed locate service such as via 8-1-1 in conjunction with the current telehealth services.
But the CRTC disagreed on Thursday, noting that the CCGA’s application did not fully demonstrate that the locate service meets all of the Commission’s guidelines for N-1-1 code assignment, that the benefits of a joint use of 8-1-1 are outweighed by potential public confusion, and the technical, operational, organizational, and cost recovery challenges that would occur.
