Three people could be out of work as a result of a relocation of 911 emergency call services being relocated from Kelowna to Vancouver.

It was announced Wednesday morning that 911 calls placed from nine interior regional districts will be answered by a new service provider.  A five year contract with E-Comm in Vancouver has been signed and the transition from the RCMP  to the new provider will take place November 18th.

Over the course of the agreement the regional districts will save a combined $2.1M.

The nine regional districts include the Regional District of Central Okanagan, North Okanagan, Okanagan-Similkameen, Thompson-Nicola, Columbia-Shuswap, Squamish-Lillooet (North), Central Kootenay, East Kootenay and Kootenay-Boundary Regional Districts.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) currently provides initial 9-1-1 call response services to the nine regional districts throughout the BC Interior through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

That service is provided through the Southeast District Operational Communications Centre (OCC) in Kelowna.

RDCO Communications Director, Bruce Smith, says people calling 911 after the change over shouldn’t notice any difference.

He says the person answering the call will still ask where to direct your call (police, fire, ambulance).

The call will then be sent downstream to the appropriate agency.

Within the service area of the nine regional districts during 2013, a total of 226,796 9-1-1 calls were received and answered by the OCC based in Kelowna.