CRTC Demands Answers From Bell, Rogers, Telus Over Emergency Alert Spam

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is looking into why residents across Manitoba received a flood of emergency wireless alerts during a severe storm earlier this summer.

The CRTC sent letters to Bell, Rogers, and Telus, as well as Pelmorex Corp., which manages the Alert Ready system. The regulator is asking the companies to explain what triggered the flood of notifications and how to prevent similar over-alerting in the future, (via ChrisD.ca).

The inquiry stems from a June 9 severe weather event that brought heavy rain, damaging winds over 100 km/h, large hail, and a confirmed tornado near Ste. Anne. The crazy weather knocked out power to nearly 17,000 customers in Winnipeg.

During the storm, some residents were bombarded with 16 to 20 notifications on their mobile devices, including people located well outside the active threat area, which is the annoying part.

“Commission staff have been informed of reports concerning tornado alerts that were issued in Winnipeg and southern Manitoba on 9 June 2026, in which members of the public reported receiving an unusually high number of wireless emergency alerts,” the CRTC noted in its letter. “Commission staff is gathering information on the event, any potential root causes that have been identified, as well as corrective actions that have or will be taken to address these causes.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada recently rolled out an updated warning system that uses drawn “polygons” to pinpoint severe weather. Forecasters can now send targeted warnings directly to specific zones and update the boundaries as storms move, which should help minimize unnecessary alerts across broader geographic regions.

Rogers, Telus, Bell and Pelmorex have until September 11 to submit their responses to the CRTC, after which the findings will be published online.