OTTAWA
,
Jan. 18
/CNW/ -
Bruce Farr
, president of the EMS Chiefs of
Canada
, today announced that the EMS Chiefs of
Canada
in cooperation with the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (CITIG) have named a representative to join the Project 25 Interest Group (P25IG), a U.S.-based entity that comprises public safety professionals and equipment manufacturers interested in the further development of, and education on, the P25 standards.
"Communications interoperability for first responders is a definite challenge for responders across
North America
and having a Canadian representative invited to participate in the P25 Interest Group is a way to keep track of emerging trends," Chief Farr stated. "Project 25 promises to revolutionize public safety communications by allowing effective, efficient and reliable intra-agency and inter-agency communications. I am confident that our participation in this initiative will be beneficial to EMS services and responders across
Canada
."
Paramedic
Mark Toman
will begin his duties with the P25IG in early 2010. Mark has worked in the field of public safety since 1988 and his current role includes working with the EMS IT and Engineering support personnel and other stakeholders to ensure that Tactical Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) operational communications needs are met. He also works closely with
Toronto
Police and
Toronto
Fire Communications while serving on the Tri-service 911 committee. Mark is the working group representative for the EMS Chiefs of
Canada
to CITIG and is one of the First Responder participants involved in shaping the Canadian Communications Interoperability Plan (CCIP). He currently sits on committees for several interoperability and radio projects.
P25 is a user-driven effort to develop a suite of standards for digital land-mobile radio (LMR) systems produced through the joint efforts of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO), the National Association of State Telecommunications Directors (NASTD), selected Federal Agencies and the National Communications System (NCS), and standardized under the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). P25 was created in 1989 in order to enable public safety agencies to communicate with each other, regardless of their LMR system manufacturers, and is the only open voluntary consensus standards development group focused on emergency responder digital LMR communications.
For further information: Ken Luciak, EMS Chiefs of Canada, (306) 766-6254, [email protected]; Bruce Far, President, EMSCC, (416) 397-9240, [email protected]
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