Alberta Village Wants to Fix Connectivity

We are turning our attention to a growing crisis in east-central Alberta—one that residents say is no longer just about inconvenience, but about safety, survival, and the basic ability to call for help when it matters most.In the small community of Village of Amisk and the surrounding region stretching from Czar and Hughenden to Hardisty—and even along the southern edge of CFB Wainwright—cellular and data service has been deteriorating for months. According to a formal letter sent to Alberta MLA Nate Horner and federal MP Pierre Poilievre, what was once described as “limited coverage” has now become, in their words, “an all-time low.”Residents report dropped connections, near-total dead zones, and perhaps most alarmingly, failures in SOS and 911 connectivity in multiple areas. Landline outages—some stretching up to six weeks—have only compounded the problem, leaving entire households and businesses cut off.And the consequences, according to local officials, are no longer hypothetical.A medical emergency last summer saw ambulance crews lose contact with dispatch while responding to a patient suffering a severe injury, delaying care by nearly forty minutes. In another incident, a fast-moving grass fire driven by winds exceeding 60 kilometres per hour could not be reported promptly because the caller had no service at the point of ignition, forcing residents to physically drive in search of signal while emergency responders struggled to pinpoint the location. And in a third case, a young woman seriously injured after being thrown from a horse was unable to share her location or contact rescuers—even as they passed nearby—because her device simply could not connect.For the residents of the region, these are not isolated anecdotes. They are part of a pattern they say is putting lives, livestock, and livelihoods at risk.The letter, signed alongside a petition of more than 600 residents—most of whom reportedly use Telus and Koodo networks—calls for urgent intervention from both provincial and federal levels of government. In response,  Pierre Poilievre has sponsored e-petition E-7477, now before the House of Commons of Canada House of Commons of Canada, urging Telecommunications providers to close persistent service gaps in rural east-central Alberta and ensure emergency connectivity is reliable for all Canadians.The petition remains open until July 4th.Today, we speak with Amisk Mayor Bill Rock about what life is like on the front lines of Canada’s rural connectivity gap—and what, if anything, can be done before the next emergency turns into something far worse.-----Sign the e-Petitionhttps://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7477-----Support The Show Today: https://www.crossborderinterviews.ca/support-the-showJoin The Show: https://www.crossborderinterviews.ca/be-part-of-the-show ------Listen To The Show:Apple: https://apple.co/41p5I2ISpotify: https://bit.ly/3tkvb0E YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/crossborderinterviewswithchrisbrown------Follow Us On Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crossborderpodcast/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/crossbordernetwork.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@crossborderpodcast Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/CrossBorderInterviews/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crossborderinterviews/ Website: https://www.crossborderinterviews.ca/Municipal Affairs is Part of The Cross Border Network©2026