Roles and Responsibilities

The Alert Ready system involves many partners, including provincial, territorial, federal government organizations and emergency management officials, the operator of the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System (NAAD System) and alert distributors (radio, television and wireless providers).

Each stakeholder has a unique and important role in the Alert Ready process.

For a shareable version of the Roles & Responsibilities, please click here.

Government Issuer

Government Issuer

  • Includes provincial, territorial and federal government organizations and emergency management officials.
  • Specifies the type of alert [e.g. amber alert, tornado, etc.] as well as whether it is to be broadcast immediately because of imminent threat to life.
  • Chooses the content of the message, including which language(s) the message will be issued in.
  • Chooses the format of the message, including whether the message will be sent as text only, audio only or in both text and audio formats.
  • Specifies why and when the alert is sent.
  • Ensures that the alert is updated and/or cancelled.
  • Specifies the geographical areas covered by the alert.
NAAD System

NAAD System

  • Operated by Pelmorex Corp., the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) System takes the alert information from the Government Issuer and pushes it to Alert Distributors.
  • The NAAD System provides quick, efficient, and secure delivery of alert messages, as provided from the Government Issuer, to Alert Distributors (television/radio/cable/satellite companies), as well as wireless providers. This is done via satellite and internet data feeds.
  • Ensures technical standards regarding the format of alert data files are respected.
  • Ensures full Canada-wide coverage of alert data feeds are available to Alert Distributors including television/radio/cable/satellite companies and wireless service providers.

Alert Distributors

  • Alert Distributors include television, radio, cable/satellite and wireless service providers.
  • Responsible for delivering alert messages directly to Canadians over their broadcast and wireless communications platforms (television, radio and LTE-connected wireless devices).

Please note:

  • Television and cable/satellite broadcasters are responsible for how the message is broadcast. This includes colour, font, screen position of the text, and, in some cases, the audio broadcast.
  • Television and radio Alert Distributors are expected to broadcast a message once, but may, at their discretion, repeat the message or keep it displayed until it is cancelled by the government issuer.
  • Wireless Alert Distributors broadcast a message once to each compatible wireless device that is in, or enters, the alert area while the alert is valid.
  • Television and radio Alert Distributors may use Text to Speech (TTS) to transcribe the text into speech for broadcast.
  • Poor formatting of the message text by the Government Issuer can impact the quality of the TTS audio broadcast by the television/radio/cable/satellite company.
The Public

The Public

  • When an alert is heard, it is the responsibility of the public to stop, listen and respond as directed by the Government Issuer.