Public Service Announcement

Dial 311 for municipal government information and services

 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 (Halifax, NS) – Beginning tomorrow, residents, visitors and businesses can dial 311 from anywhere in HRM for easy and direct access to important municipal government information and services. Citizens should continue to dial 911 for emergency calls.

An abbreviated telephone number regulated by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, 311 provides a single point of contact for citizens to request non-emergency local government service, complete a transaction, or receive general municipal information. It has been adopted by many cities across North America to improve accessibility to city information and services, and to increase effectiveness in responding to public inquiries.

Notable enhancements to HRM’s citizen contact centre with the implementation of 311 telephone service include:

• Service in over 150 languages using a telephone interpretation service
• Return of holiday call taking (only closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day)
• More efficient routing of calls through self-service options
• The ability to call from anywhere in HRM without it being a long distance call (regular pay phone and cellular phone charges still apply)

In the coming days, HRM will be launching 311 online, offering citizens the choice to make a variety of self-service requests through www.halifax.ca.

Residents can call the 311 citizen contact centre from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with the exception of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Calls related to illegally parked vehicles or urgent transportation, animal services, municipal operations, or wastewater service issues will be accepted outside of these hours. Hearing impaired teletypewriter users can continue to call (902) 490-6645.

For more information on 311 telephone service, visit www.halifax.ca/311.

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Contact:

Tiffany Chase
HRM Communications
490-5057