This is National Public Safety Communicators Week and area officials are honouring the thousands of people who answer emergency calls, dispatch emergency crews and offer life-saving assistance.  

“Call takers are specially trained to gather the critical information needed to prioritize and dispatch calls,” says Marc Picard, Manager of the North Bay Central Ambulance Communications Centre.  “Not all calls come in from a residential or business address—people need assistance at their cottages, on a snowmobile trail or somewhere on the highway. Dispatchers have to be able to identify a variety of locations on a digital mapping system to be able to send assistance wherever they are…