Published in the Pontiac Journal on January 14, 2026.
Tashi Farmilo
MRC PONTIAC – A widespread landline failure in the Pontiac on December 30 left residents in several communities unable to reach 911, prompting emergency measures from local authorities and renewed concerns over the fragility of telecommunications infrastructure in isolated areas. The disruption affected Télébec customers in municipalities like Otter Lake and Thorne, where landline service is often the primary mode of communication, particularly for seniors and households without reliable mobile coverage.
Although the municipalities are part of the MRC Pontiac, 911 calls from the region are routed through the MRC des Collines emergency call centre, which was also affected by the outage. According to Paul Charbonneau, director of public safety for the MRC des Collines, all landline 911 calls from the MRC Pontiac, Papineauville and des Collines region are
handled by the des Collines centre and are normally routed correctly. Mobile calls, however, can sometimes be misdirected when cellphones connect to towers across territorial boundaries, meaning Quebec calls near the border can occasionally jump to Ontario emergency centres or other neighbouring regions. When this happens, dispatchers transfer the call to the appropriate centre. Charbonneau noted this is an issue in border areas across North America.
During the outage, standard emergency services were inaccessible by landline, prompting des Collines officials to activate emergency protocols and issue substitute emergency numbers — 819-459-9911 and 1-888-459-9911 — which were shared through social media and municipal communication channels to ensure residents in both MRCs could still access help.
Healthcare facilities, including the Pontiac Community Hospital in Shawville and CLSCs in Shawville, Otter Lake, and Chapeau, were also affected. According to the CISSS de l’Outaouais, no major interruptions to clinical operations occurred. Staff maintained call capacity by rerouting lines through another hospital, though this workaround required callers to verbally confirm their location due to misdirected caller ID data.
Charbonneau confirmed no critical incidents required adaptation beyond communication rerouting. However, he emphasized the responsibility for local telecommunications infrastructure lies with service providers, not emergency services.
Télébec confirmed the service failure but didn’t publicly specify the cause, duration, or extent of the disruption. They didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
