Speaking at Queen’s Park on Nov. 20, Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas called on the province to improve emergency services dispatching and follow the recommendations laid out by a coroner’s inquest into a 2013 crash on Lake Wanapitei that left three people dead.
On June 30, 2013, a boating crash on Lake Wanapitei claimed the lives of Matthew Humeniuk, Michael Kritz and Stephanie Bertrand. Dispatching of emergency service was delayed for several reasons.
After calling 911 when their boat crashed into an island, the dispatcher had trouble finding the crash, despite having been sent a map that included the GPS coordinates of the location. That same dispatcher told them to light a signal fire to assist rescuers. In the dry conditions, that fire spread and igniting the crashed boat. Kritz died in the fire.
The coroner’s inquest into the incident, held partially in Sudbury, made 27 recommendations to improve emergency service dispatch in Ontario. Of those recommendations, 19 were directed towards the provincial government and 8 to the municipalities.
The Nickel Belt MPP said implementing the recommendations would go a long way to improving confidence in emergency dispatching. People need to feel that when they call 911, they’ll get the help they need, Gélinas said.
“The recommendations are focused on making sure that the learnings from the inquest help improve our 911 emergency response,” Gélinas said. “After the accident many people lost confidence in our emergency response. It is important for the provincial government to implement those recommendations, to improve our system and to help people regain confidence in that important service.
“Those failings of our 911 system are there for everybody to see, but the point is to make sure that the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services follows up on the 19 important recommendations of this coroner’s inquest.”
