Eight months after switching to the VoyentAlert emergency notification system the Cariboo Regional District now has a policy in place for its use.
During a regular board meeting in October, the board approved the policy.
CRD manager of communications Gerald Pinchbeck said VoyentAlert will be used to spread information to CRD residents about alerts and orders, boil water advisories and shelter-in-place notifications.
"With the policy we are clarifying that the CRD will not be duplicating by broadcasting notifications from other authorities, such as air quality advisories, burning prohibitions, or critical service disruptions," he explained. "We want to minimize the risk of overuse and over-notifying people with the system."
One of the unique aspects of the VoyentAlert system is the ability to send out messaging to people living in the geographical area that might be impacted by a certain incident, he said.
Giving an example, he cited last summer when people in Williams Lake were receiving messages from the provincial emergency notification system telling them to keep away from the Chilcotin River landslide when they were nowhere near it.
When the new system was introduced in February, 2024, the 25,000 people who were already signed up for Everbridge, the CRD's previous emergency notification system, were immediately attached to VoyentAlert.
Since the end of March, another 2,300 people have signed up, Pinchbeck said.
In 2025, the CRD will be seeking feedback from residents about the system and will then do a test of it.
Anyone who is not signed up can receive emergency notifications online through the CRD’s website: www.cariboord.ca/emergencynotification.
