Canada's National Public Alerting System (NPAS) is running tests on television, radio and compatible wireless devices across most of the country Wednesday as part of Emergency Preparedness Week.
"Testing provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the Alert Ready system and to validate that it works as intended in case of an actual emergency."
The sound will simulate the tone of an emergency alert, the news release notes, and radio and television broadcasters may use an audio version of the test alert message through a text-to-speech (TTS) software.
Minister of Emergency Preparedness Harjit Sajjan announced that during this exercise, Public Safety Canada will test its own public alerting capability in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut and Yukon.
In a news release, Public Safety Canada said regular testing and evaluation of the NPAS is necessary to ensure that, "when an emergency or disaster falling under federal responsibility occurs, the Government of Canada is prepared to deliver urgent and lifesaving warnings to the public."
The CRTC notes that cellphone service providers and broadcasters send out two test alerts per year to make sure the system is working properly — one in May and another typically in November.
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