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Emergency text alert testing in B.C., Alberta today

Day 2 of emergency alert testing Wednesday: officials working to fix Monday failures
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A smartphone and a television receive visual and audio alerts to test Alert Ready, a national public alert system Monday, May 7, 2018 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Operators of Canada’s new emergency alert system say they are learning from the failed tests earlier this week in Ontario and Quebec.

And Alert Ready officials say tests planned for today in other parts of the country will go ahead while they work to resolve glitches in the system.

Mobile users in Ontario and Quebec were supposed to receive alerts on their devices Monday as part of a test of the regulator-mandated warning system, which was supposed to be fully in place by April 6.

No alerts were registered on devices in Quebec, while only some mobile subscribers in Ontario received the signal.

Related: New national emergency alert system fails first test

System operators blamed the Quebec malfunction on a computer coding error and were still investigating what went wrong in Ontario.

Test signals are also expected to sound on radio and TV stations today in provinces and territories outside of Ontario and Quebec, except Nunavut.

“Alert Ready tests planned for Wednesday will proceed as scheduled,” system officials said in an email. “Alert Ready partners have been actively working to resolve identified issues.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ordered wireless providers to implement the system to distribute warnings of imminent safety threats, such as tornadoes, floods, Amber Alerts or terrorist threats.

Here are the times for tests scheduled for today. All times are local:

  • Yukon 1:30 p.m.
  • Northwest Territories 1:55 p.m.
  • Alberta 1:55 p.m.
  • British-Columbia 1:55 p.m.
  • Saskatchewan 1:55 p.m.
  • Manitoba 1:55 p.m.
  • Newfoundland and Labrador 1:55 p.m.
  • Nova Scotia 1:55 p.m.
  • Prince Edward Island 1:55 p.m.
  • New Brunswick 6:55 p.m.

Related: B.C. and Alberta cellphones will light up Wednesday with emergency test signal

The Canadian Press

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