The City of Kamloops has signed on to continue using the Voyent Alert system with plans to expand on its use.

Since activating the city-dedicated Voyent account this year, the program has sent out notifications three times, including an introduction, a test, and an actual use – alerting users in Barnhartvale of a water-main break back in August.

The City’s acting Communications Manager, Kristen Rodrigue, says they are hoping to use – what they call – Voyent 2.0 a bit more once it is launched, however, she says they do want to be cautious with that.

“We are very cognizant of making sure Voyent Alert is used for emergencies and that it is useful during emergencies,” Rodrigue said. “We do not want to overuse it with messages that residents might not find useful or valuable, and then they unsubscribe.”

For emergencies like last year’s wildfires and evacuations, Rodrigue says the City would use the Voyent Alert system on top of other forms of communication like the City website, social media, and local media outlets like Radio NL.

The plan is to also use Voyent 2.0 to notify residents of planned service cuts.

“So like our planned water interruptions, either due to construction, or maintenance,” she said. “Typically we do door-to-door, notices for anyone that will be impacted and we provide them notices that their water will be interrupted.”

While the user-interface will remain fairly similar, Rodrigue says the biggest change once the system update rolls out is the number of accounts that can be registered through the app.

“Right now, app users can only be registered for the City of Kamloops or the TNRD,” she said. “So, if you have a property where you want notifications on in both areas, you can only register one on the app, and for the other, you need to sign up for phone, email, or text notifications.”

“With Voyent 2.0, you will be able to open [the app) and put a pin anywhere within the TNRD or the City of Kamloops and it will automatically register you for the right account,” she added.

“The City of Kamloops can only issue alerts within the City’s boundaries and the same for TNRD, same for Tk’emlúps. Voyent 2.0 will allow this to be seamless from the users perspective and operate very similarly from the operators perspective.”

Right now, around 20,000 are signed up for Voyent in Kamloops, with most people using the mobile app to receive their alerts.

“Unfortunately, for a system like Voyent, a critical event is typically what increases your number,” Rodrigue said. “We do have plans to continually put our messaging to register for Voyent Alert, especially in advance of flood and fire season.”