Border Issues

Mission: Focus on the mitigation of communications issues involving public safety operations in the United States border areas, and proactively work in international regulatory realms to facilitate more effective communications in these border areas.

Tasks:

Work with Canada and Mexico to help facilitate timely and effective international allocation, regulation, and sharing of 700 MHz spectrum

Provide documentation of NPSTC’s positions in related regulatory matters and filings

Assist NPSTC and the public safety community with the border region aspects of the 800 MHz rebanding efforts

Serve as a focal point for border area public safety communications issues in all bands, as they arise.

Southern and Northern Border Task Force Proposed Plan

Summarize current issues with cross-border coordination process and spectrum access;

Provide recommendations to improve coordination/spectrum access, identify both near- and long-term actions;

Provide recommendations to help enable cross-border interoperability, identify both near- and long-term actions;

External Action Plan: Determine what is needed for the government agencies to implement recommendations;

Internal Action Plan: Define action plan, target deadlines and who has responsibility for each action;

Identify points of influence to maximize the chance of success;

Develop outreach plan to gain support within public safety community;

Through its parent Interoperability Committee, coordinate recommendations and action plans with Spectrum Management and Technology Committees.

Border Issues Documents

Border Issues News

Border Issues Links

Industry Canada Links

Volunteer

Northern Border News!

Annual Public Safety Interoperability Workshop Ends on a High Note

The Fifth Canadian Public Safety Interoperability Workshop – the flagship event of the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (CITIG) – again brought together a broad base of public safety and emergency management practitioners to develop a mutual understanding of the key voice and data interoperability issues facing today's public safety sector. Held from December 5 to 7, 2011 in Ottawa, the nearly 300 delegates came away with real-world insights, practical knowledge, and a common sense approach to moving forward while attending sessions on the hottest interoperability issues facing public safety today and while being “put to work" during extensive break-out sessions.

The Workshop delivered on its theme of “From Results to Successes!” and participants (delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors) widely regarded this year’s Workshop as the most successful event to date. Emerging from the Workshop was recognition that responders and partners were galvanized and well-positioned to address 700 MHz broadband spectrum challenge. There was also wide-spread agreement that land mobile radio voice interoperability remains a significant area of concern – more must be done to raise awareness about the issue and help mobilize leadership to operationalize impending technological advances. Participants also identified the need to strengthen links between responder community and national research efforts.

Overall, it was clear that CITIG has come a long way in five years. Building on that success, the three Chiefs associations, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC) and Emergency Medical Services Chiefs of Canada (EMSCC) announced that they will be transitioning the day-to-day operations of CITIG to the Associations as of January 1, 2012. The Canadian Police Research Centre (CPRC), a key supporter and contributor to the success of CITIG, will gradually take a less active role and reposition its interoperability work primarily into the technology, test and evaluation domain.

Despite the changes in governance, CITIG will remain the unified voice of the responder community. The CACP, CAFC, EMSCC and CPRC and the more than 850 volunteer members from the responder community, all orders of government, non-governmental organizations, associations, academia and industry continue to be committed to CITIG and to work together to improve public safety interoperability in Canada.

For those who attended the conference, please do you part to tell us how we did by filling out the electronic evaluation at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PMBYBBB. Those who complete the evaluation by Friday, December 16, 2011 will be entered in a random draw for a BlackBerry Playbook, courtesy of our friends at Research in Motion. And remember, the Sixth Annual Public Safety Interoperability Workshop is tentatively scheduled for December 2 to 5, 2012 in Toronto. Details to follow!

Select Presentations from CITIG#5 Now Available

Visit the Past Meetings folder for presentations from the Fifth Annual Public Safety Interoperability Workshop. We will continue posting more as we get them.

New Technical Document on Congestion Management Techniques for Public Safety Mobile Broadband Communications Networks now Available for Download

Public safety Canada and the Centre for Security Sciences, together with other stakeholders, have begun producing a series of Technical Advisory Notices (TANs) on key issues related to responder interoperability. These draft documents are meant to raise awareness about emerging interoperability issues of interest to the public safety community. The newest TAN etitled “Congestion Management Techniques for Public Safety Mobile Broadband Communications Networks” is now available on the CITIG site in the “Technical Advisory Notices” folder under the Data tab.

Participate in Canada’s First National Public Safety Communication Interoperability Baseline Assessment!

On behalf of CITIG and the Chief’s associations, please take just 20 minutes out of your day to position your organization along the Canadian Communications Interoperability Continuum. (Those who complete the study will be entered into a draw to win one of two iPads.) Why is this relevant to you? The purpose of this self-assessment questionnaire is to determine the current and future state of emergency communications interoperability in Canada. The results will be used to identify priority areas for improvement and also as baseline data against which future progress will be measured. Please go to http://survey.openvenue.com/CPRC to access the study and obtain your password. The study will close on December 12, 2011. The results will be analyzed and provided to CPRC and first responder organizations in a detailed report and presentation. As well, participating organizations will be provided with a detailed report that will allow you to benchmark selected study inputs to other respondent groups across Canada.

Also on www.citig.ca

New P25 Report Available
NPSTC Quarterly Newsletter
New U.S. Publication Offers Great Overview of the Evolution of Public Safety Communications

Don’t miss this upcoming event (details at www.citig.ca):

Maximizing Technology Partnerships in Challenging Economic Times – A CACP Informatics Conference, February 22 to 24, 2012 in Toronto.

Visit www.citig.ca today!

Support Provided by the US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate,
Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), and Office of Emergency Communications (OEC)