A test of Alert Ready, Canada’s National Public Alerting System, will take place on Wednesday, May 7 across most provinces and territories.
Canadians in participating provinces and territories will receive one test message from their respective provincial or territorial emergency management organization over television, radio and compatible wireless devices at the times indicated below.
The test message will simulate an emergency alert, beginning with the alert tone, known as the Canadian Alert Attention Signal. The message will indicate that it is a test and does not require action from the public.
Testing of the Alert Ready system provides the opportunity to:
- Increase public awareness about the system and spark emergency preparedness conversations, so that Canadians can be ready and prepared in the event of an actual emergency
- Validate the effectiveness and reliability of the system to ensure it operates as intended from end-to-end
- Provides an opportunity for Emergency Management officials to practice sending alerts to the public
The test alert will be distributed on TV, radio and wireless, however, not all Canadians will receive the test alert on their mobile device. This may occur for a variety of reasons – device compatibility, connection to an LTE or 5G network, cell tower coverage and device software and settings. To learn more about cell phone compatibility click here.
Can you opt out from receiving an alert?
Given the importance of warning Canadians of an imminent threat to the safety of life or property, Canadians do not have an option to opt out of the test or actual emergency alerts.
Why now?
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requires wireless service providers and broadcasters to send at least one test alert per year, either in May during Emergency Preparedness Week and/or in November. Participation in the testing of Alert Ready is at the sole discretion of each provincial and territorial emergency management organization (EMO).
Alert Ready is designed to deliver critical and potentially life-saving alerts to Canadians, including, but not limited to, tornadoes, flooding, fires and AMBER alerts. Given the importance of warning Canadians of imminent threat to the safety of life and property, Canadians do not have the option to opt-out of this essential life-saving service.
Since 2024 the Alert Ready system delivered 877 public emergency alert messages to Canadians. A breakdown of alert types that were issued by province and territory can be found here.