Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

In Canada, climate change and population growth are increasing the frequency, severity, cost, and social impact of public emergencies such as wild-fires, floods, and severe storms. Effective public response to such emergency situations often requires tight cooperation between multiple public agencies, and gaps in situational awareness and response can have devastating consequences. In complex situations, responding agencies may have limited operational experience together and may not have aligned communication processes or even tools. To address the lack of shared communications tools, the Canadian Government has allocated nationwide radio spectrum to be used for public safety communications and has opened consultations towards the creation of a Public Safety Broadband Network (PSBN). The development of the PSBN as a common communications platform is itself a complex process, but is just the first step towards building national coordinated emergency response. To be effective, public agencies must also adopt compatible technology and develop and practice coordinated response procedures. We propose to use the ARTI grant to put in place an emergency communications system at Algonquin College using a 5G cellular radio system capable of accessing the Canadian public safety spectrum (Band 14) anticipated to be a cornerstone of the Public Safety Broadband Network. This equipment will be used in programs of research to help develop models for cooperation between agencies as well as training activities, applications and technologies for the Public Safety Broadband Network. Algonquin College houses a Police and Public Safety Institute which provides training and continuing education for emergency responders and a School of Advanced Technology with education and research programs focused on communications technology. The ARTI grant will allow Algonquin College to run field exercises using a local prototype of the PSBN, providing trainees and the wide range of public safety organizations who are its partners with the operational experience to help them evolve the network, training, and operations for coordinated emergency response. The grant will position Algonquin College to have the depth of expertise and quality of facilities to act as a centre of excellence for technology and operations development and standardization, a neutral host for multi-agency exercises, and a leading edge emergency communications training partner.