Telecom - Staff Letter addressed to Patrick Dubé (Ministère de la Sécurité publique)
Gatineau, 19 December 2025
Reference: 8000-C12-202306407
BY EMAIL
Patrick Dubé
Sous-Ministre
Ministère de la Sécurité publique
Tour des Laurentides, 5e étage
2525, boulevard Laurier
Québec (Québec) G1V 2L2
patrick.dube-sm@msp.gouv.qc.ca
Subject: Emergency Services Working Group Report on Official Language Access at Intermediary Call Centres
Monsieur le Sous-Ministre,
Thank you for your letter regarding the Emergency Services Working Group’s (ESWG) report on ensuring that 9-1-1 calls routed to intermediary call centres are handled in the caller’s preferred official language.
The CRTC shares your concern regarding incidents in which 9-1-1 calls from francophone residents of Quebec were routed to an intermediary and answered in English. Canadians need access to 9-1-1 services in the official language of their choice. To that end, the CRTC is taking action to help find solutions within its mandate.
We appreciate you sharing your views on the ESWG report, which is available in both French and English and on the ESWG’s webpage. As an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal, the CRTC makes decisions based on the public record. As such, we are adding your letter to the public record and will be seeking comments from relevant stakeholders on your proposal. We also note that le Comité 9-1-1 du SCFP-Québec included in its contribution to the ESWG report a recommendation aligned with the one set out in your letter, namely that all TSPs should be mandated to route any 9-1-1 calls with no location attached to an intermediary call centre located in Québec or in a province that has bilingual staff (like New Brunswick), if the customer’s file has an address in Québec. Once the public record is closed, the CRTC will carefully consider all proposals before it before coming to a decision.
While this matter is an open file before the CRTC, we are unable to discuss it given the quasi-judicial nature of our work. However, we would be very happy to meet with your team to discuss our shared responsibility related to 9-1-1 services. Please do not hesitate to contact Noah Moser, A/Director General, Costing and Regulatory Implementation, by email at Noah.Moser@crtc.gc.ca.
Sincerely,
Leila Wright
Vice-President
Telecommunications Sector
c.c.:
Noah Moser, A/Director General, Costing and Regulatory Implementation
Étienne Robelin, Manager Emergency Services Policy
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