Alert Ready

National Public Alerting System
Alert Ready
Typeemergency warning and notification system
BrandingAlert Ready
Country
Canada
Launch date
31 March 2015
Transmitters
all terrestrial radio & television broadcasters and digital multichannel television providers
Network
Common Alerting Protocol Wireless Emergency Alerts
Official website
www.alertready.ca/
ReplacedNational Attack Warning Siren System

The National Public Alerting System (NPAS; French: Système national d'alertes à la population), branded as Alert Ready (French: En Alerte), is the national warning system in Canada, broadcast to Canadian television, radio, and wireless devices.[1][2][3]

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.[1] 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 (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.

Environment and Climate Change Canada also maintains Weatheradio Canada, which transmits weather information and hazard alerts. Unlike Alert Ready, it utilizes Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME)—the same protocol used by NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System in the United States.[4][5]

  1. ^ a b "National Public Alerting System". www.publicsafety.gc.ca. 21 December 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference crtc-consultation2014-85 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Weatheradio network". Environment and Climate Change Canada. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  5. ^ "Weatheradio Canada: general information". Environment and Climate Change Canada. 28 January 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2017.