10 good reasons not to call 911 in B.C.

E-Comm handled a record number of 911 calls in 2022. Unfortunately, all too many of them were really unnecessary.

“Nuisance calls never belong on emergency lines, but it’s extremely concerning how often callers know their non-urgent concerns aren’t an appropriate reason to call 9-1-1,” call taker Mark Kolomejac said in an E-Comm news release issued today, Jan. 4. “We regularly get callers stating ‘I know this isn’t an emergency, but I didn’t know who else to call.’”

E-Comm handles 99% of 911 calls in B.C. and answered the phone 2,109,440 times, a 1.8% increase from 2021.

Topping their list of nuisance calls was a call to report the nozzle wasn’t working at a gas station. Another reported a broken windshield wiper and one was for a flat tire.

“Consumer complaints do not belong on the emergency lines,” the news release says, pointing to a list of non-emergency contacts on its website here.

One option is to call 211 for information and referrals to social, community and government services or the B.C. Crisis Line at 310-6789.

Other complaints were about people playing basketball on a public court at night, children drawing with chalk at a playground and someone wasn’t picking up after their dog.

Another person complained about someone else using their garbage bin. One report was for someone cutting in front of them in a car wash. Another had their phone stuck in a bench. Wrapping up the top 10 list was a call for an update on a nationwide telco outage.

In December, Kelowna RCMP posted its own Top 13 list of nuisance calls that included things like a request to order a taxi while another person called 911 because they didn’t want to wait on hold on the non-emergency line.

READ MORE: 13 unnecessary calls to 9-1-1 in B.C.

The E-Comm press release says it answers 98 per cent of the calls it gets in five seconds or less.

“Despite a publicly recognized rise in demand for all emergency services, E-Comm call takers continue to field nuisance calls on 9-1-1, diverting critical resources from British Columbians in real emergency situations,” the news release says.

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