Agreed. Fredericton is, but well... that's just Fredericton, and they don't use any of the interop talkgroups that NS uses.
The contract with Aliant/Bell for the NSTMRS is up in 2011. There were rumblings about the three maritime provinces (NS/NB/PEI) getting together and creating one big system between the three, but I'm not sure how likely that is to actually occur. Now PEI is tendering for their own system, and NS will be putting out tenders soon for the new system here. Not sure what NB is doing. So I guess that dream was flushed.
Interesting read though. I love how hopeful they sound that the police, fire, EMS and even the snow plows will be able to talk to each other. Yeah, right.
The NSTMRS has so many interop talkgroups between different agencies, 6 mutual aid talkgroups common to all users, two simplex channels common to all users, dedicated talkgroups so fire can talk to EHS (EMS), DNR can talk to fire, police can talk to EHS and fire, EHS can talk to DOT, etc etc etc. Check out bank C in just about any public safety or government radio and it's all other users' talkgroups. You know how often that all gets used? The TMR has so many talkgroups I don't think I've ever seen key up once.
There was a water search and rescue near me a few weeks ago. Fire was there, RCMP was there, EHS was there, GSAR was there, Coast Guard was on its way. Everybody stayed on their own talkgroups, instead of switching to mutual aid. So now you've got units on the ground relaying information to their IC, who relays it to the other agency's IC, who relays it to their unit on the ground... or even worse if it has to go through dispatch which means now their dispatch has to call the other dispatch centre on the phone and relay information. Plus there's the fact in more rural areas where the TMR sites don't have as many voice repeaters, you're now overloading the site and some users are getting busy signals...
There's talkgroups dedicated for MFR (medical first responders), so when a fire department arrives at a medical call before the ambulance they can switch to the MFR talkgroup and give their update directly to EHS. Most departments in the province use these and they work great, but Halifax Regional Fire for whatever reason doesn't want to, so they have to relay their patient updates through dispatch, who has to call EHS dispatch..by the time the ambulance gets the update they're on scene.
Sorry for the rant...