Provincewide Alert Ready test scheduled for Nov. 25

Mobile phones, radios and televisions across Ontario will ring out with the Alert Ready alarm at 12:55 p.m. on Nov. 25 as Canada’s public alerting system undergoes a nation-wide routine test.

Pelmorex — the company that developed Alert Ready in collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial government agencies, broadcasters and wireless service providers — said tests are an opportunity to improve the performance and reliability of the system and ensure it operates the way it should in the event of a real, life-threatening emergency. 

Alert Ready was launched in 2015 to deliver urgent and potentially life-saving alerts to Canadians about emergencies such as tornadoes, flooding, fires and child abductions. So far in 2020, Ontario has received 78 alerts, including nine for civil emergencies, two for radiological hazards, five Amber alerts, 60 tornado warnings and two wildfire warnings.

“Pelmorex receives alerts from authorized alert issuers who consist of provincial, territorial and federal authorities, and makes those alerts available to alert distributors, which include television, radio, satellite, cable and wireless service providers,” Martin Belanger, director of public alerting at Pelmorex, said in a media release.

Because it is considered an essential and life-saving service, Ontarians, like everyone else in Canada, do not have the ability to opt-out of Alert Ready.

For more information, visit . To fill out a survey on Nov. 25 to indicate whether or not you received the alert, visit .