Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Linking You To All Non Emergency Services

By 250 News

Getting everyone on board for 2-1-1 is the message delivered this evening by the United Way.   

2-1-1 is the new service line that  is designed to provide "province-wide, free, confidential access to non-emergency  information  on social, health, government and community services."  Most recently, ( April 8th) the United Way received $600 thousand dollars from the Province to proceed with the work.  Already the service is offered in Quebec City, and parts of the Golden horseshoe in Southern Ontario.  Nova Scotia plans to go province wide by the end of this year.

The plan is to have the service (phone and web site) available to  56% of the B.C. population  in the first year (2007)  handling 125,288 calls.   The national goal is to have 2-1-1 available to all Canadians by the year 2011.  The lines would be multi- lingual and staffed by those trained in handling non-emergency  assistance.

In its powerpoiint presentation to Prince George City Council the United Way's  Trevor Williams noted the  business model  calls for two regional call centres, one in the lower mainland servicing the Fraser valley, Vancouver  Coastal regions, the other in the Okanagan.  Then, two "remote" services, one on Vancouver Island, the other in Prince George.  

The Prince George link would handle some 33 thousand calls, and would service the entire northern part of the province.  Williams says there may be some financial support needed for the Request for Proposal to land the "Prince George Link" and  there may be a request coming for  funds to support that RFP.  

For now, the United Way is asking Council to be a 2-1-1 Champion, and to act as a stakeholder in the process.  

Ongoing operating costs for this project are in the $5million dollar range and certainly, Williams says funding  would be expected to come from Federal, Provincial, and local government along with private investors and special programs and services.

One of the benefits would be to help identify gaps in service areas.  Records of types of calls, can help agencies focus resources or develop new programs.

The project has been under development for about five years, and is now entering stage three, "Partnership and development" to identify  possible partners for delivery of the service.

Councilor Don Zurowski says with the success the Prince George call center is having  in providing 9-1-1 service to the northern part of the province, he can't see why there would be any  reason why P.G. couldn't also host the  call centre for the 2-1-1 service.  











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