N.S. shooting inquiry: Half of RCMP 911 call takers and dispatchers off work

Supervisors for the Nova Scotia RCMP’s operational communications centre who worked alongside 911 call takers and dispatchers during the April 2020 mass shooting say half of its staff are now off work.

Bryan Green, acting commander of the operational communications centre, told the inquiry into the mass shooting Monday that before the two-day rampage there was a full-time staff of 50 people.

Green said there are now just 24 full-time staff working in 911 call taking and dispatch for the province’s RCMP.

He said most of the job losses are “due to Portapique” — the town where the killings began — and that while some of those positions are technically filled by people on sick leave, he said doesn’t know if those members will return.

An inquiry investigator asked Green if he and his staff had been adequately supported following the killings of 22 people, and he said he felt well supported but that it’s possible more could have been done to prevent losing so many staff.

Kirsten Baglee, an communications centre supervisor who worked the morning shift on April 19, 2020, with Green, said the magnitude of the mass shooting was more than anyone on staff could have imagined.

She said an event like that is something “careers are lost on.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2022.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

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