B.C.'s 911 upgrade: you dial the same way, but if you hang up right away you will get a callback from a 604 number

1. What Next Generation 911 is, and whether you need to do anything

The bottom line: you do not need to do anything. The way you dial does not change at all: you still press 9, 1, 1. Your current cell phone and landline keep working as before. You do not need a new phone, you do not need to register, and you do not need to install an app. E-Comm and the RCMP both say the switch is being done behind the scenes, and people calling 911 will hardly notice it.

What Next Generation 911 is. Its full name is Next Generation 9-1-1, or NG911 for short (officially also written NG9-1-1). Canada's current 911 network was designed decades ago for landline phones. It uses analog signals and the equipment is old, so it needs to be replaced. The new network is digital and uses Internet Protocol (IP), the same kind of technology used by today's cell phones and the internet.

Why it is being replaced. The federal telecommunications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), requires the whole country to switch. The CRTC regulates the phone companies that connect 911 calls to 911 call centres; the call centres, and police, fire and ambulance services, are run by provincial, municipal and local governments. So this upgrade is being done by the phone companies and the local 911 call centres together.

Once your call connects, the steps are the same as before. The call-taker first asks whether you need "police, fire or ambulance," then asks which city you are in, and then transfers the call to the agency responsible. The E-Comm call-taker stays on the line until someone there picks up; E-Comm says the whole transfer usually takes less than a minute.

What is not here yet. The new network lays the groundwork for sending real-time text and video and for giving a more accurate location in the future. But none of these are part of this 2026 upgrade, and there is no date yet for when they will come (more in section 6). For now, the general public can still only make phone calls.

The only change you will notice right away: automated callbacks. If you dial 911 and hang up right away, you will get a recorded call from E-Comm (more in section 3).

What E-Comm is. E-Comm is the agency that answers 911 calls in B.C. It is owned jointly by the municipalities and public safety agencies it serves. About 99% of 911 calls in B.C. are first answered by E-Comm. It answers 911 for 25 regional districts. A regional district is a regional government made up of several municipalities and the rural areas around them. For example, Greater Victoria is part of the Capital Regional District (CRD), which is one of these 25. B.C. has 27 regional districts in total, and in a few places 911 is not answered by E-Comm (for example, E-Comm's list states that the City of Nelson is excluded).

2. Where in B.C. the switch is done, and which dates are still coming

Which day did Greater Victoria switch? E-Comm did not announce a separate date for Victoria. It says Vancouver Island was in the first group, and once the Lower Mainland switched on October 6, the part where it is "the first to answer 911" was all done. So by October 6, 911 calls in Greater Victoria were already being answered at the first step on the new network.

The RCMP dates above were scheduled in advance. As of November 3, the RCMP website had not announced, centre by centre, that each one "has switched." The official websites also do not say when Saanich Fire or BCEHS will switch.

Why does one 911 call have several dates? A 911 call passes through several hands: first, the call-taker who answers asks which service you need; then the call is passed to the police, fire or ambulance call-taking and dispatch centre, which sends people and vehicles. These steps belong to different agencies, and each switches on its own schedule, so the dates are different. E-Comm and the RCMP both say they have detailed plans for the switch to avoid any interruption to 911 service as far as possible; for you, the way you dial stays the same.

3. If you dial 911 and hang up right away: what to do when you get a callback from a 604 number

What an automated callback is. The new network reacts quickly and can catch even 911 calls that are hung up after a few milliseconds; in the past, calls like these might never have reached E-Comm, so no one called back. Now E-Comm automatically calls back every such call to check whether you are all right. E-Comm says Peel Region and Toronto in Ontario already use a similar system.

When you will get a callback. Only when the call dropped before it reached a real call-taker. If a real person had already answered before the call dropped, there is no automated callback; the call-taker calls you back manually (see below).

What the call looks like. It shows a 10-digit phone number starting with 604, and it is from E-Comm. If you see an unknown number starting with 604 and you have just dialled 911, even by accident, answer it.

What you hear when you answer. A recorded message in English tells you that this phone dialled 911, and then gives you two choices:

• Press 1: to reach a real call-taker. If there is an emergency, or you are not sure, press 1.
• Press 3: to tell the system it was a mistake. The system will not follow up.

The recording repeats three times, then hangs up.

If there is no response the first time. If you do not answer, or you answer but do not press a key, the system calls a second time. If there is still no response the second time, it does not follow up. This is the same for cell phones and landlines.

Does calling back the 604 number help? No. E-Comm says that if you call it back, you only hear a recording telling you that you have reached E-Comm and to call 911 if you have an emergency. So if you really need help, dial 911 directly. Do not call back the 604 number, and do not just wait for it to call you.

The recording is only in English. E-Comm says the recording is only in English in the first phase. If you cannot understand the recording, that is all right: just press 1. Once you reach a real person, say the service and the language you need, for example: "Ambulance. Mandarin interpreter, please." E-Comm has interpreters 24 hours a day, connected in less than a minute, in more than 200 languages (for how to say the names of Chinese languages, see the end of section 4).

If the call dropped after a real person answered. This is called an open line. The call-taker calls back manually twice, the usual way. If no one responds, the call-taker follows the rules of the local police.

Also, E-Comm's calling tips page (which does not say which kind of hang-up it means) says: once you hang up, they do not know whether you are safe; if the call came from a landline and they can confirm the location, they may send police to check on you. If the call-taker thinks you may not be safe, or the situation seems suspicious, they will also send police to check. This is a different situation from what the automated callback Q&A says ("no follow-up after two calls with no response"), so do not treat not answering the callback as meaning everything is fine, and do not count on someone coming to your door if you do not answer.

The system does not "listen." At first, the automated callback system cannot recognize voices or hear background sounds; it only recognizes the keys you press. So do not count on "if I answer and stay silent, the system will still know something is wrong."

What to do in different situations:

Two examples:

• A child is playing with your phone, presses 911 and hangs up right away. A few minutes later a call comes in from a number starting with 604, and when you answer it is a recording in English. You check that everything at home is fine, and you just press 3.
• An older family member falls at home. You dial 911 in a panic, then your hand slips and you hang up. This is a real emergency: do not wait for the callback, dial 911 again right away. If the 604 call comes in before you have redialled, do not hang up even if you cannot understand the recording: press 1, and once you reach a real person, report the emergency as usual and ask for an interpreter.

How to avoid dialling 911 by mistake. E-Comm says it gets hundreds of 911 calls dialled by mistake every day. These are tips from E-Comm and the CRTC:

• Lock your phone when you are not using it, use a phone case, and keep it where it will not easily get pressed.
• Do not set 911 as a speed dial. The CRTC says that if your phone came with an "automatic 911 dialling" feature already turned on, turn it off by following the user manual. This is about that one feature only; whether to turn on other emergency features, such as fall alerts on a watch, depends on what your family needs.
• Right after you have dialled 911, delete that entry from your call history so you do not press it again by mistake.
• Do not dial 911 to test whether it works.
• Do not give old phones to children as toys. E-Comm says many old phones that are no longer in service can still dial 911; the CRTC also says a phone without active service can still dial 911 in an emergency.
• Teach children that 911 is not a toy and should only be called in a real emergency.

Related: for what to do if you dialled 911 by mistake or cannot speak, see section 3, "Unable to speak, calling 911 by mistake, and texting: know the difference," of Guide No. 20, Staying safe and getting help; for what the call-taker will ask and how to ask for an interpreter, see section 2 of the same guide.

4. In Victoria and the South Island: who answers a 911 call, and who it is passed on to

You only need to dial 911 and say which service you need and which city you are in. Who the call is passed on to after that is the call-taker's job. But knowing how the work is divided helps you understand why different agencies in the news announce different dates. Below is what each agency's official website said on November 3, 2026; this may change later.

An example. You live in Langford, and there is a fire in your kitchen. You dial 911, and the E-Comm call-taker asks, "Police, fire or ambulance?" You say, "Fire. Langford." The call-taker passes the call to Surrey Fire Regional Dispatch, which sends Langford's fire trucks. If someone is also hurt, tell the call-taker that too; E-Comm says that once a call is connected, call-takers and dispatchers can contact other agencies at any time to respond together. These steps happen in different places, but you only made one call.

What this has to do with the upgrade. Surrey Fire Regional Dispatch had already switched in September 2025; E-Comm's "first to answer 911" part had all switched by October 6; the police agencies E-Comm dispatches for are switching one after another after October 6; the official websites do not say when Saanich Fire Dispatch or BCEHS will switch. Whichever step has not switched yet, the way you dial 911 is the same.

For things that are not urgent, call your local police non-emergency line. For example, if you only find out afterwards that your bike or licence plate was stolen, the thief is long gone and no one is hurt, you do not need to call 911 (E-Comm's examples). E-Comm says not to call 911 to ask for a non-emergency number. Choose the non-emergency number based on where it happened: for the numbers for Victoria and Esquimalt (VicPD), Saanich and West Shore, see section 10 of Guide No. 20, Staying safe and getting help; for other places such as Oak Bay, Central Saanich, Sidney / North Saanich and Sooke, check E-Comm's list of local police non-emergency numbers (the link is at the end of this section). If you are not sure whether it counts as an emergency, dial 911 and let the call-taker decide.

How to say your Chinese language in English. E-Comm suggests that family members who do not speak English first learn to say the name of their own language in English, so an interpreter can be connected faster. The interpreter language list linked on E-Comm's website (the list from the interpreting company LanguageLine) includes these names for Chinese languages and dialects:

For how to ask for an interpreter once you are connected, and which English phrases to say, see section 2 of Guide No. 20, Staying safe and getting help.

Related: for common help numbers in Greater Victoria and across the province, you can print the Guide No. 20 companion sheet, Emergency phone sheet, and keep it at home.

5. For people who are Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired: Text with 9-1-1 still works as before, but in Victoria, ask first

What Text with 9-1-1 is. Text with 9-1-1, or T9-1-1 for short, is a special 911 text service for people who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, hard of hearing or speech impaired (officially shortened to DHHSI). In an emergency, the 911 call centre can talk with you by text. After this upgrade, the service continues as before; E-Comm says there are no changes for now.

Not everyone can use it. If a member of the general public sends a text directly to "911," it will not be received anywhere in Canada; you will only get an automatic reply telling you to call 911. If you are not Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired, you can only make a phone call.

Get ready before you need it:

• Register for T9-1-1 with your mobile phone provider. Bell, Rogers, TELUS, Freedom, Fido, Koodo, Public Mobile, Virgin Plus and others have information pages, linked from the "Registration" page on the T9-1-1 website.
• Your phone must be compatible, able to make calls and to send and receive texts; if you are not sure, ask your phone provider.
• You need a working text messaging plan. The service itself is free.
• It does not work with Wi-Fi Calling; you must be connected to the mobile network.
• It only works in Canada, and only in areas where it is available; it does not work outside Canada.
• If you change your phone number, you must deregister the old number and register the new one. If you change your phone or SIM card with the same provider, your number stays the same and you do not need to register again, but make sure the new phone is compatible. If you change providers, you must register with the new provider, even if you keep your number.
• If someone in your family is Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired, they may need to borrow your phone in an emergency. In that case, family members and close friends can also register their own phones. If a person who can hear and speak uses that phone to call 911, they just speak.

How to use it in an emergency:

1. Unlock your phone first. Some phones can dial 911 while locked but cannot send or receive texts.
2. Dial 911 and make a voice call. A text conversation can only start after you make a call.
3. Do not hang up. You do not need to speak: the call-taker gets an alert and sends you the first text. The text comes from a 13-digit number starting with 555911.
4. Reply only after you get the first text, saying clearly what is happening and where. Keep it short, and do not use abbreviations or slang. The example the website gives looks like this: "FIRE at 123 Main Street, City Name".
5. If there is no answer, send it again. The call is only over when you receive "End of 9-1-1 Call"; if you need to get in touch again after that, dial 911 again.
6. If you have not received the first text after a few minutes, find another way to get help, such as asking someone nearby to call 911 for you.

⚠️ People living in Victoria: check the coverage. On November 3, 2026, the British Columbia coverage list on the T9-1-1 website (run by the Canadian Telecommunications Association) listed Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, the Sunshine Coast, Squamish-Lillooet, the Interior, the North, Peace River and North Vancouver Island, but did not list the Capital Regional District (Greater Victoria), nor the Cowichan Valley, and for the Regional District of Nanaimo it only listed the School District 69 area. However, E-Comm's T9-1-1 page has a coverage map (a map from 2019), and the page says you can open it to see where in B.C. the service is available; on the map, the whole of Vancouver Island, including its southern tip, is shown as available. The two sources say different things, and we could not find out which one is more recent. So if you live in Victoria and need this service, first call your phone provider and ask: "Is Text with 9-1-1 available in Greater Victoria?" Until you get a clear answer, have other ways to get help ready. The T9-1-1 website also says that if you are at the edge of a service area, your call may not reach the right 911 call centre.

One change the new network brings. If someone registered for T9-1-1 dials 911 and hangs up before a call-taker answers, the system also calls back by automated voice call, up to two times. A person who cannot hear may not even know the phone is ringing. So after you dial, do not hang up; wait for the first text. E-Comm says other callback methods, such as text messages, may be added later.

Another option: video relay service. People who use sign language can also press 911 in a video relay service (VRS) app, and a relay interpreter will make the call for you. But this option only works during VRS service hours; T9-1-1 is available 24 hours a day.

Related: if someone in your family is Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired, write how they will get help into the family contact plan in section 4 of Guide No. 21, Family emergency preparedness.

6. Real-time text, photos and video, more accurate location: none of these are available yet

What real-time text (RTT) is. Real-Time Text, or RTT for short, is different from regular texting: each character you type appears to the other person right away, like chatting face to face. The CRTC says that in the future, when you cannot make a phone call or it is not safe to speak, you will be able to use it to ask 911 for help.

When will it come? That is not known yet. The CRTC says the deadline for 911 real-time text for the general public will be set later. E-Comm says it does not know when it will come to B.C.; it depends on how the CRTC arranges the national rollout. The RCMP says these new features will take years and will only come in a second phase. So for now, do not use regular texting to ask 911 for help.

Photos and video. E-Comm and the RCMP both list "sending video" as a future feature. The CRTC's example is that in the future you could send a video of a car crash to 911. For now, there is no way for the public to send photos or video to 911. If you see a car crash or a fire, call first and describe the scene in words.

You still need to give your location yourself.

• E-Comm says that in Canada, only landlines can send an exact address to 911; cell phones only send an approximate location; internet phones (VoIP, phones that use broadband or the internet to make calls) do not send a location.
• The CRTC says a cell phone's approximate location is usually within a range of 50 to 300 metres. Within a range that large, there may be several buildings and several units.
• The CRTC explains it in more detail: a fixed internet phone used at home sends the registered address, like a landline; the kind you can use anywhere cannot send an address, so you have to say it yourself, and the registered address is only used as a last resort. So if you use an internet phone, keep your address up to date with your service provider; if you cannot speak, the call-taker may look for you at the registered address. During a power outage (without a backup battery) or when the internet is down, you cannot call 911 from an internet phone.
• Next Generation 911 will use GPS and mapping systems in the future, so locations will be more accurate; but this is not part of this 2026 upgrade.

So once your call connects, you still need to say your address clearly yourself.

Related: for how to give your address, with examples, see section 2, "When 911 answers, first say clearly where the person is," of Guide No. 20, Staying safe and getting help; you can write how to say your home address in English on the Guide No. 21 companion sheet, Family emergency card and checklist.

7. Before you go to a remote area: first check whether you can dial 911 there

Not every place in B.C. can dial 911. On September 11, 2026, the Province of B.C. said that most communities in B.C. can already dial 911, but some rural, remote and First Nations communities still have to dial a local 10-digit phone number to reach police, fire and ambulance. The province is providing up to $5 million to help these communities switch to 911; Haida Gwaii is one of them.

"99%" does not mean 99% of places. E-Comm says it answers about 99% of 911 calls in the province. This is counted by the number of calls; it does not mean you can dial 911 in 99% of the province, and it certainly does not mean there is cell service everywhere. The CRTC also says that where there is no 911, you have to dial a regular phone number to reach emergency services.

Before you leave, do this:

• Before going to a remote area, an island or a First Nations community, ask the local government, the place where you are staying, or the person hosting you: "What number should I call for police, fire or ambulance here?"
• Save the number in your phone, and also write it on paper and carry it, so you can still see it if your phone battery dies.
• Also think ahead: is there cell service there, and how will you get help if there is none?

Related: for writing your common numbers and how to reach family on one card, see the Guide No. 21 companion sheet, Family emergency card and checklist, and Guide No. 21, Family emergency preparedness.

8. A few things in the news: the deadline, more calls, and where the money comes from

What the March 31, 2027 deadline is. The CRTC requires all phone companies to upgrade their networks by March 31, 2027, so they can handle Next Generation 911 voice calls. The old 911 network is called Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1). The parts of it that will no longer be used are to be shut down before that date by the phone companies that provide the 911 network. Local 911 call centres must switch before then, or make other arrangements (for example, handing over call-answering to a centre that has already switched). This deadline was originally March 4, 2025; in Decision 2025-67 on February 28, 2025, the CRTC extended it to March 31, 2027, because most 911 call centres could not be ready in time. E-Comm says it will finish switching before the end of 2026, ahead of the deadline.

If you see claims later that "911 calls have gone up," think first. More calls do not necessarily mean more emergencies. The new network can catch calls that are hung up in an instant, which could not be caught before; E-Comm expects that because of calls dialled by mistake and pocket dials, the number of 911 calls recorded will go up. That does not mean there are more emergencies. In its October update, E-Comm said that because of the switch it is adjusting how it counts calls, and will report on the effect on the numbers later. So before you compare numbers from before and after the upgrade, first check whether the counting method has changed.

Are 911 calls getting answered? E-Comm's October update says that as of September 30, 2026, 97% of 911 calls were answered within 5 seconds (the target is 95%); it answered a total of 545,250 911 calls in the third quarter, 3% fewer than the same period last year; from the start of the year to the end of September, the number was about the same as last year (0.2% more). Note two things: first, these numbers only go up to September 30, when the Lower Mainland had not yet switched; second, "answered within 5 seconds" only counts the first call-taker picking up, and does not include the time for transferring the call, dispatching help and vehicles getting to the scene.

Where the money comes from. On March 1, 2023, the Province of B.C. announced $150 million:

E-Comm says the $90 million it received is one-time start-up money; none of this start-up money covers the day-to-day costs of the new network after 2026.

9. Checklist

• Remember: if you dial 911 and then hang up, the call that comes next from a number starting with 604 is from E-Comm. Answer it.
• Tell the older people and children in your family: if you hear a recording in English about 911, press 1 if there is an emergency or you do not understand, and press 3 if it really was a mistake.
• If you need help, do not wait for the callback and do not call back the 604 number: dial 911 again directly.
• Lock your phone; do not set 911 as a speed dial; turn off any "automatic 911 dialling" feature that came turned on, following the user manual; do not give old phones to children to play with.
• Make sure everyone in the family can say the name of their own language in English: Mandarin, Cantonese and so on.
• If someone in your family is Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired: first register for T9-1-1 with your phone provider, then ask whether it works in Greater Victoria.
• Before going to a remote area or an island, find out the local number for police, fire and ambulance, and save it in your phone and on paper.
• The general public cannot send texts, photos or video to 911 yet (people who are Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired can use T9-1-1 after registering); you need to say your address clearly yourself.

Related: if you have only recently arrived in B.C., you can add these items to the first-week tasks in Guide No. 2, First 90 days.

Related guides

• → No. 20 · Staying safe and getting help
  What to say first when 911 answers, how to give your address and how to ask for a Mandarin or Cantonese interpreter (section 2); how to tell apart calling by mistake, being unable to speak and T9-1-1 (section 3); and local police non-emergency numbers (section 10).
• → No. 20 companion sheet · Emergency phone sheet
  Help numbers for B.C. and Greater Victoria, grouped by danger to people, medical help, utilities, on the water and in the wild, animals and city services; you can print it and keep it at home.
• → No. 21 · Family emergency preparedness
  How to prepare home supplies, a grab-and-go bag and a family contact plan; section 4 covers contacts, meeting places and a short emergency card for each family member.
• → No. 21 companion sheet · Family emergency card and checklist
  A blank pocket emergency card, family contact plan and supplies checklist, where you can fill in your address, common phone numbers and how to reach each other.
• → No. 2 · First 90 days
  What to do in your first week, first month and first three months in Canada: your SIN, MSP health insurance, a bank account, a phone number and more.

Main official links in this guide

These are the official pages used most in this guide. The web pages of E-Comm, the BC RCMP, the Province of B.C., the City of Surrey, the District of Saanich, the Capital Regional District, CREST, Text with 9-1-1 and the Victoria Police Department, and several E-Comm PDFs, were all opened and read on November 3, 2026; the three CRTC pages could not be opened that day, so we read archived copies of them saved in 2026. There are a few things we could not check: E-Comm has not announced exactly which day the first step of 911 in Greater Victoria moved to the new network; the official websites do not say whether each RCMP centre has switched on schedule, or when Saanich Fire Dispatch, BC Emergency Health Services and the police agencies in Victoria will switch; and two official sources disagree on whether T9-1-1 can be used in Greater Victoria (see section 5). Other links are at the end of each section.