Surrey's fire department got some help from city council on March 10 when the politicians awarded a $4.3 million contract for a five-year software licensing contract and also directed city staff to pursue a $2 million grant from the Union of B.C. Municipalities to procure computer-aided dispatch equipment.
The contract, with a spending limit set at $4,352,433.01, will see Motorola Solutions Canada Inc. implement its computer-aided design (CAD) software for five years, including annual licensing and support. Surrey Fire Chief Larry Thomas explained in a corporate report before council that Surrey Fire Regional Dispatch relies on this software to process 911 calls for fire service response. It's used to identify a caller's location and "quickly determine" which fire resources to dispatch.
"The CAD software also provides critical incident information to responding fire trucks, which enhances their ability to effectively respond to and mitigate the incident," Thomas informed council. "The current CAD system was deployed in 2005 and has served the Surrey Fire Regional Dispatch well over the last 20 years. This critical piece of software has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced."
Meantime, council also approved the chief's recommendation to pursue the $2 million grant to secure hardware and software that's required to
complete the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 for the Surrey Fire Services’ dispatch centre, from a $60 million funding pool.
"As mandated by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunication Commission, the Surrey Fire Service’s dispatch centre is required to transition from the legacy (existing) 9-1-1 to Next Generation 9-1-1 systems," Thomas told council.
"As part of the UBCM grant application process, council resolution supporting the proposed activity is required and recommended. This grant funding will enhance the operational readiness of Surrey Fire Services’ dispatch centre and support the ability to complete the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1."
