Manitoba’s 911 Crisis and What Comes Next | Winnipeg News

Manitoba’s emergency system nearly collapsed for two hours Wednesday afternoon when 911 went dark outside Winnipeg, forcing callers to reach local departments directly. While RCMP say no emergency responses were missed, the outage exposed critical vulnerabilities—Steinbach’s mayor calling for urgent upgrades, Brandon’s mayor crediting backup software RapidSOS for keeping ambulances rolling. The root cause? A construction crew accidentally severed a fiber cable, which may have coincided with failing backup systems. Bell is now under pressure to report on the outage within 14 days, while Premier Wab Kinew plans to escalate the issue to Prime Minister Mark Carney. By 2026, Manitoba will roll out Next Generation 911 with stronger safeguards. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/d9fdffbe110023f6