What is Alert Ready?

Alert Ready is Canada’s emergency alerting system. Alert Ready delivers critical and potentially life-saving alerts to Canadians through television, radio and LTE-connected and compatible wireless devices. The Alert Ready system was developed with many partners, including federal, provincial and territorial emergency management officials, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Pelmorex, the broadcasting industry and wireless service providers. Together, these partners work to ensure Canadians receive alerts immediately and know when to take action to stay safe.

What types of alerts are broadcast?

Only authorized government agencies can issue alerts. Together, government officials developed a specific list of the types of alerts that are considered a threat to life. These types of alerts should be broadcast immediately on television, radio and wireless devices in an impacted area.

Below is a complete list and description of these alerts.

• Urban Fire - An urban fire threatens multiple residential and/or commercial properties.
• Industrial Fire - A large fire in an industrial building or complex that poses a threat to human health.
• Wildfire - A wildfire involves natural combustibles, such as grass, brush and trees.
• Forest Fire - A Forest fire is a wildfire or prescribed fire that is burning in forested areas, grass or alpine/tundra vegetation and poses a threat to human safety.

Biological

• Biological - A potentially dangerous and poisonous substance that is usually very unstable and can be easily transferred between living organisms.
• Chemical - A chemical substance that, if misused or released, could result in serious injury or death.
• Radiological - With sufficient concentration, a radiological substance.
• Drinking Water Contamination - When water quality is negatively affected and a boil-water advisory may be raised, cautioning use by the public.

Hazardous

• Explosive - A potentially dangerous substance or device that may explode.

Environmental

• Air Quality - A decrease in air quality is caused by an elevated particulate count in the atmosphere that can negatively affect visibility or the health of individuals.
• Falling Object - Natural or human-made materials at risk of falling, which may threaten people or property.

Natural

• Tornado - A tornado is a vortex of a violently rotating winds, often forming a funnel shaped cloud that is capable of damaging property and injuring people.
• Flash Flood - Often occurring from river ice jams and excessive unexpected rainfall, a flash flood is the sudden onset of water causing immediate flooding. This event presents a unique danger to life and safety as there is little or no warning that this event will occur.
• Earthquake - An earthquake is a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates seismic waves that can cause substantial damage, especially in urban environments.
• Hurricane - A hurricane is violent storm comprised of intense winds and, heavy rain, potentially causing a storm surge, floods, coastal erosion or landslides.
• Tsunami - A tsunami is a gravitational sea wave produced by a large-scale, short-duration disturbance of the ocean floor.
• Thunderstorm - A thunderstorm is a storm of heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning that poses a threat to persons.
• Storm Surge - A storm surge is abnormal rise in sea level accompanying an intense storm or hurricane that poses a threat to coastal areas.
• Landslide - The general term for a wide variety of processes and landforms involving the down slope movement under the force of gravity of masses of soil and rock material, a landslide can threaten communities and infrastructure located in its path.
• Dam Overflow - An overflowing or failing of a dam or reservoir that threatens downstream areas. An alert is issued only in the case of imminent flooding.
• Magnetic Storm - A magnetic storm is a worldwide disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field that can disable electronic devices and infrastructure.
• Meteorite - A natural object of extraterrestrial origin (meteoroid) that passes through the atmosphere and hits the ground.
• Lahar - Lahar is a flowing mixture of water-saturated rock debris that forms on the slopes of a volcano. Moving down slope under the force of gravity, lahar can threaten communities situated near the volcano.
• Pyroclastic Flow - A pyroclastic flow is a high density flow of solid volcanic fragments suspended in gas that flows down slope from a volcanic vent and can threaten communities situated near the volcanos.
• Pyroclastic Surge - A pyroclastic surge is a turbulent, low-density cloud of hot rock debris and gases that are ejected during a volcanic eruption that moves over the ground surface at a high speed.
• Volcanic Ash - Volcanic ash is comprised of dust or particles emitted by a volcano during a eruption. Volcanic ash may remain suspended in the atmosphere for a long period of time.

National Security

• Terrorist Threat - The use of violence or threats of violence by individuals or groups against civilians or infrastructure.

Civil

• Civil Emergency - A civil emergency occurs when humans cause a disruption of services or require varying levels of support, law enforcement or attention.
• Animal Danger - When a wild or domesticated animal poses a threat to human life or property.
• Amber Alert - An Amber Alert is issued by police services when a child has been abducted and it is believed that his/her life is in grave danger. An Amber Alert provides the public with immediate and up-to-date information about the abduction and solicits the public’s help in the safe and swift return of the child.
• 911 Service - A 911 service alert happens when there is a disruption or outage of telecommunication services between the public and emergency responders.

Admin

• Test Message - A test message may be issued for either public awareness or technical testing purposes.

For more information about Alert Ready, please click here.