• Under the Police Act, local governments are responsible for providing emergency communication services, and can select whether to provide these services themselves, outsource them to E-Comm or use another service provider.
• E-Comm provides emergency-call dispatch services to 30 police services and 40 fire services in the Lower Mainland, southern Vancouver Island and some parts of the Okanagan.
• E-Comm services are determined and paid for by communities through their annual service agreements. Increases occur through annual levies determined by E-Comm.
• Communities receiving 911 services through the RCMP pay for their services through the local police funding agreement.
• E-Comm 911 is British Columbia’s largest and primary emergency-communications provider, answering more than 99% of initial 911 calls across 25 of the province’s 27 regional districts, and delivering call-taking and dispatch services for police and fire departments, serving more than 70 emergency agencies primarily in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island.
• Each year, the organization handles more than two million 911 calls across B.C., consistently meeting high service standards by answering 98% of calls within five seconds.

The E-Comm review identified 17 key findings and 25 recommendations directed to E-Comm that are focused on the organization’s board, contracting and budgeting practices, and strategic and business continuity planning. Some of the key recommendations include:

• Recommendation 1.1: Optimize the board size to 8-12 independent members to enhance governance effectiveness, accountability and decision-making.
• Recommendation 3.1: Define a comprehensive framework that is both complementary and aligned to the new governance model. The framework should clearly outline roles and responsibilities (both on behalf of client and shareholder organizations, as well as E-Comm) and should reflect both governance-level relationships and operational relationships.
• Recommendation 4.1: Shift strategic planning to a three-year plan to enable greater responsiveness to key issues as they arise, and higher-impact strategic decision-making.
• Recommendation 4.2: Refocus the Executive Leadership Team on strategic priorities and critical challenges requiring executive direction to enable clearer prioritization, more effective governance and accelerated transformation progress.
• Recommendation 5.1: Develop a structured Corporate Performance Measurement Framework aligned to strategic planning objectives to support regular and timely updates as well as ongoing organizational reporting.
• Recommendation 6.1: Revisit strategic planning process and financial governance practices to incorporate strategic priorities in a budget setting.
• Recommendation 6.2: Annually present a full organizational budget to the finance committee for analysis and board for approval, inclusive of key trade-off decisions that are required to manage costs.
• Recommendation 7.1: Continue to move toward accurate five-year forecasts for the board and funding agencies to provide greater financial predictability for E-Comm and clients.
• Recommendation 9.1: Enhance expense-management practices and reporting to include ongoing expense tracking, budget variances and forecasting that tracks progress and variances against strategic priorities.
• Recommendation 12.1: E-Comm should consider implementing pricing strategies to support alignment between services provided and the cost of delivery.
• Recommendation 16.1: Create a standardized service catalogue with definitions of services offered by E-Comm. This should include detailed descriptions of each service and the associated pricing structures by service and be completed in conjunction with improvements to the new financial model.

The E-Comm review made one recommendation to the Province focusing on government’s role within the emergency-dispatch sector:

• Recommendation 2.1: Clearly define the Province’s role within the emergency-communications ecosystem and align legislative mechanisms to support clarity in roles and responsibilities, effective governance, performance management and the ability to influence effects on public safety.