Burnaby launching non-emergency call centre to combat long E-Comm waits

The City of Burnaby is launching a new call centre that will handle non-emergency calls.

At the moment, those calls are fielded by E-Comm—the agency that handles 911 dispatch for many communities around BC, and one that has come under intense criticism in the past few years for long call waits that lead to delayed emergency responses.

E-Comm came under particular scrutiny for its response to the 2021 heat dome, where hundreds of British Columbians died—many of them while waiting for ambulances to arrive.

Burnaby’s mayor said at the time that “our 911 system completely failed us during that time.” But E-Comm has also come under fire for its long waits for non-emergency calls.

“We haven’t fully bought into the E-Comm model yet, and I don’t know if we ever will,” Mayor Mike Hurley told the Beacon in an interview in November 2021.

“Outside of what happened during the heat dome, we’re having many complaints about how calls are being answered and delivered. So that’s something that we’re going to try and deal with within the structure of E-Comm.”

Hurley said then that he’d heard frustration from Burnaby residents over the hold times for people making non-emergency calls, and suggested that E-Comm had “overextended itself.”

That reasoning is reflected in the city’s announcement about the new call centre, which notes that 21,731 non-emergency calls made in 2022 were abandoned—more than half of all non-emergency calls made to E-Comm.

“When someone calls a non-emergency line they deserve to have their concerns addressed in a timely manner,” Hurley said in the announcement.

“Reducing wait times will serve residents better and improve community safety, and by offering this service in-house we will gain the benefits that come through increased connections between our staff and residents.”

The centre will begin operations this spring out of the Burnaby RCMP detachment, and the city will assume responsibility for non-emergency calls made between 9am and 9pm. E-Comm will continue to take overnight non-emergency calls, along with emergency calls and handling dispatch for all calls.

The city said it expects the centre will save costs when it renews its contract with E-Comm at the end of the year.

The new call centre will involve a one-time start-up cost of about $125,000, and the city said annual operating costs are expected to land around $475,000.

“The transition of non-emergency call service will offer the City an opportunity to evaluate its long-term goal to establish a City Operational Call Centre that can handle all calls for police and fire, as well as general City calls,” the city said.