The New Brunswick government is spending $100 million to upgrade its mobile radio system, which will enable all first responders to communicate with one another, as well as their Maritime counterparts, during emergencies and weather events.

Infrastructure Minister Roger Melanson says the current 30-year-old mobile radio system presents 'unacceptable risks' to first responders. (CBC) "Our existing communication system is unable to support modern communications requirements necessary for emergency services, daily enforcement, and protection of residents and business," Infrastructure Minister Roger Melanson said in a statement.

"It presents unacceptable risks to first responders and to service operations in times of emergency. We need a more reliable, functional system to increase safety, improve outcomes for residents, support business investments and do our job properly."

Officials hope the system will prevent communication problems like the ones that occurred during the Moncton shootings on June 4, 2014, when three Codiac Regional RCMP officers were killed and two others were wounded.

A system that allows RCMP members from all Maritime divisions to communicate was one of the recommendations of an independent report that looked into the Moncton shootings.

"This wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to Moncton," said Assistant Commissioner Roger Brown, the commanding officer for the RCMP in New Brunswick. The provincial government has been considering options for improving the 30-year-old system since 2007.

Assistant commissioner Roger Brown, commanding officer of J Division RCMP in New Brunswick, says the new system will go a long way to address some of the communications issues highlighted by the report into the Moncton shootings. (CBC) "But with the new system in place, it will certainly go a long, long way to address some of the issues that came up in the MacNeil report — addressing the communications pieces," said Brown.

The current system, which serves more than 3,400 users, including first responders, enforcement officers, and public service workers, such as school bus drivers and snow plow operators, does not allow communication between the various agencies and does not offer interprovincial operability.

- Roger Brown, RCMP

The upgrades will also eliminate many of the so-called dead zones in rural areas and make it easier to encrypt sensitive communications.

Brown says he's relieved.

"We're operating here in New Brunswick on a system from the '80s. If you and I were running on a system from the '80s, passing around floppy disks and sending fax messages and so on, how efficient would we be today?"

The provincial government has partnered on the project with Bell Mobility, which will construct communication towers, place antennas and networking infrastructure at new and existing towers, and handle the supply, installation and configuration of network and user equipment as well as help with the development of courseware and training for radio technicians.

Work on the upgrades is already underway and is expected to be completed by late 2016.

The governments of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island also recently formed similar partnerships with Bell Mobility to upgrade their systems, which will enable interprovincial communication.