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By Liam Verster
Radio communication

MD of Greenview to improve first responder efforts by joining AFRRCS

Dec 16, 2019 | 2:49 PM

The MD of Greenview is joining Alberta’s First Responders Radio Communications System, or AFRRCS.

AFRRCS is an encrypted communications system for first responders, and is already in use by emergency crews in the region, including both the City and County of Grande Prairie.

Reeve Dale Smith says the main reason they chose to join the system is to help emergency crews coordinate responses.

“The EMTs and RCMP can be dispatched out of the Grande Prairie dispatch, and whether they’re going towards DeBolt, or down Highway 40, our volunteer firemen from those locales can be patched in, and work with everybody together.”

He adds that the MD is quite large, and this system will help people in different areas communicate and coordinate efficiently, not only with other jurisdictions, but within the district as well.

Smith says he’s excited to have the new system in the MD, which is not only more widely used and more powerful than previous communications systems, it’s also non-scannable.

“Right now, or in the past, people could always listen in to the RCMP scanner. And now that communications are kept within RCMP or fire departments, only those personnel can hear what’s going on. It’s an encrypted system.”

AFRRCS is a provincial project, with the government in charge of setting up and maintaining the system and infrastructure across the province. However, it will cost the MD a bit of money to get involved. They will have to provide the fire crews in Fox Creek, Valleyview, DeBolt, Grande Cache, and Grovedale with special AFRRCS hand-held radios. The cost to install the new equipment will be $591,008.

Smith says the request to purchase the hand-held radios have gone through council, and he hopes the fire crews in the MD can be equipped with AFRRCS, and providing better first response services, early in the new year.

by Liam Verster