Normal service has resumed after problems with 911 call routing across Canada
Posted September 17, 2026 6:48 am.
Last Updated September 17, 2026 9:56 am.
Police forces across the country experienced difficulties routing 911 calls early Thursday, but the situation returned to normal by mid-morning.
Before daybreak, police forces across Canada were urging people to use their regular non-emergency phone lines to report emergencies, rather than calling 911.
According to information obtained by The Canadian Press, a breakdown occurred at the telephone provider responsible for managing 911. Although calls continued to be received and processed, it was possible that they were initially routed to police forces elsewhere in the country.
In Quebec, police forces in Montreal, Quebec City and several other municipalities were affected, as was the Sûreté du Québec.
“What we did was that we left the phone numbers available on the Sûreté du Québec website in all the call management centres across the province”, Sergeant Valérie Beauchamp, spokesperson for Sûreté du Québec.
“It’s a problem with the operator,” said Beauchamp. “In fact, it’s not a problem with the SQ’s telecom service, it’s just a problem with the operator. It’s a generalized problem because it affects not only the Sûreté du Québec, but all the other playlist bodies in Quebec, and I believe also in Ontario, so outside Quebec, so it’s really widespread at that level.”
For Montreal Police, the problem was resolved around 4:45 a.m. The return to normal was announced earlier in the day to the Quebec City Police Service and the Sûreté du Québec.
“The Sûreté du Québec wishes to thank the citizens, partners and stakeholders involved for their collaboration and patience throughout this event,” the SQ said in a statement.
“I didn’t have any problematic situations reported to us in connection with that, perhaps more difficult stories that had happened, everything, went well,” added Beauchamp.
Urgences-santé and the Montreal Fire Department confirmed they were not impacted.
Bell media took to X to post about the outage.
Bell told CityNews in a statement:
“Earlier this morning, Bell experienced an issue with its core next generation (NG) 9-1-1 network at approximately 3:13 a.m. ET and service was restored at 4:40 a.m. ET. The vast majority of calls coming from Bell customers were immediately picked up by the “SafetyNet” system and rerouted to the destination Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). We continue to investigate the root cause of the issue. We can confirm that over 95% of all 911 unique calls that were made from Bell customers were redirected to SafetyNet.”
Elsewhere in the country
This situation was not limited to Quebec. The Ontario Provincial Police also confirmed receiving reports of intermittent 911 service outages in parts of the province on Thursday morning.
“The problem is under investigation,” the police force wrote on Facebook.
Police forces in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have also reported problems routing 911 calls, as have police services in Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg, among others.
“According to reports, some cellular service providers are experiencing difficulties connecting to 911 across Canada,” the Nova Scotia government said in a statement.
“The province is working to determine the full extent of this service interruption. The problem appears to be related to the telecommunications operators’ networks and does not concern the provincial 911 system itself.”
The cause of the outage has not yet been determined, he added, asking people not to call 911 just to check the status of the system, in order to avoid further hindering emergency operations.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
