Some P.E.I. 911 callers getting recorded response, being put on hold

Some P.E.I. residents who call 911 in an emergency are hearing a recorded message and being put on hold.

While the province says it's not able to track how often that's happening, it's also quick to downplay any potential concerns.

"It's not a frequent occurrence, but it does happen," said Pat Kelly, provincial co-ordinator with P.E.I.'s Emergency Measures Organization.

"There [are] cases where we get an influx of calls, whether it be from a motor vehicle accident, or just multiple people calling in about an incident," he said, especially given the proliferation of cell phones in recent years.

"There might not be enough operators on duty at the time to answer all the calls." 

Kelly said it's impossible to plan for when call volumes might suddenly spike: "We don't know when a motor vehicle accident is going to happen, or when three different emergencies are going to happen at once." 

But in the past three months, he said 9,000 calls were made to 911 in P.E.I. and 18 of them took longer than a minute to be answered.  

Kelly said the recorded message can kick in after the call rings, unanswered, for about 30 seconds. But he said the service provider, Bell Canada, cannot provide figures on how often that takes place.

He said the message tells callers that all operators are busy, and to stay on the line.

"It's not an ideal situation," Kelly said. "But... 96 per cent of the time your calls are being answered in 30 seconds or less."

CBC News began asking about the issue after three people who work for the corporation on P.E.I. called 911 about two separate emergencies over the period of a month. Neither incident was work-related.

All three people received the recorded message.

One of the callers said he was on hold for about 12 minutes. After he hung up, a 911 operator called him back about 10 minutes later.

Kelly said, however, the province is not aware of any 911 calls in the past three months that took more than 10 minutes to be answered.