Flat River woman gets Nova Scotia's emergency alerts, but not P.E.I.'s

Maggie Morrison knew a test of P.E.I.'s emergency alert system was coming up. 

She was at her cottage in Flat River on May 10, cleaning up some of the piles of debris left by post-tropical storm Fiona.

Morrison spends a lot of time walking the back roads and wooded areas near her cottage, so she wanted to make sure she would receive an alert on her cellphone if a real one were sent out someday. 

She waited and waited. Nothing.

"I was aware that there was going to be the alert so I had my phone, I was listening for it, waiting," Morrison said from her tree-surrounded cottage in southeastern P.E.I. 

She called not ever getting the alert "a little disconcerting, you know… My mind always goes back to Nova Scotia and the active shooter situation" in the spring of 2020.

On May 10 at 12:55 p.m. AT, Prince Edward Island's EMO conducted a test of the Alert Ready system, the same system used by all Canadian provinces and territories.

For most Islanders, the loud alarm went off on compatible wireless phones and on radio and television.

While Morrison didn't get the P.E.I. alert, she did get an alert later the same day from Nova Scotia's EMO.

Island EMO officials believe Morrison's phone may be picking up a signal from a Nova Scotia cell tower, given her close proximity to the Northumberland Strait.

"It's not a very effective system if it's not going to hit me here," said Morrison.

"If you're going to do a test, you need to make sure it's effective, because how many other people are going to be in the same situation? I guess it really hit home talking about the [Nova Scotia] fires, where people had like 10 minutes to react." 

P.E.I. has issued only three emergency alerts since the system was launched. 

One was on behalf of Summerside police, after reports of a potential abduction that turned out to be unfounded, and two were related to post-tropical storm Fiona last September.