By Chris Algiere, FirstNet Federal Outreach Branch Chief

The FirstNet outreach team headed north last week to participate in a cross-border workshop that included public safety officials from Canada, as well as state and local public safety representatives from the United States. The event was hosted by the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (CITIG), which was established to enhance coordination and information sharing on first responder communications. The CITIG is made up of more than 1,500 volunteer members from the first responder community, all levels of government, non-governmental organizations, associations, academia, and industry.

Canada is in the beginning stages of preparing for a public safety broadband network, so the workshop was a great opportunity for FirstNet to provide best practices and lessons learned to their public safety community. In addition to my presentation, representatives from bordering U.S. states attended the event and provided their local perspectives on FirstNet’s plans to deploy a nationwide public safety broadband network.

Canadian representatives expressed interest in having more opportunities to participate in FirstNet meetings in the United States so they can monitor our progress for their planning purposes. Some of the discussion during my panel also focused on the possibility of Canada identifying a formal point of contact to coordinate and share information with FirstNet on key policy, planning, and governance issues.

In addition to the FirstNet sessions, the event included several panels on critical emergency communications developments at the U.S. and Canadian border, including Next Generation 9-1-1 deployment, LMR spectrum sharing issues, and other key voice and data interoperability matters. There was also a powerful presentation by Chief (Ret) Denis Lauzon former Director Lac-Megantic Fire Department on the events surrounding the train derailment of July 6, 2013.

Also at the workshop, CITIG and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) presented the key findings from their draft report on the status of cross border interoperable communications. The report was developed by the Bi-National Cross Border Communications Working Group, which the CITIG and NPSTC established earlier this year to study cross border voice and data communications between the U.S. and Canada.

I would like to thank CITIG Executive Director Eric Torunski for inviting FirstNet to participate in the workshop and Michael Sullivan, CITIG Board Chairman and the rest of the CITIG Board members in attendance. I enjoyed learning more about Canada’s plans for a public safety broadband network and catching up with “old friends” such as Lance Valcour, VP of Public Safety & Emergency Management with the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance. It was also a good opportunity to meet with U.S. state and local representatives, including Tim Pierce, who is the State of Wisconsin’s single point of contact to FirstNet.

Thanks
-Chris