Kevin Doyle and Jessi Moekerk were driving across a snow-covered field near Yellowknife last month when the ground gave way and began to swallow their pickup truck whole.
What they thought was solid earth beneath them turned out to be an unmarked pond. As the truck sank through the ice, the doors jammed against a rising wall of snow.
Instinctively, Mr. Doyle reached for his cellphone and dialled 911.
It was a mistake only a newcomer to the area would make. And even though it ended well - a passerby rescued them after smashing through a window with a crowbar - locals still bristle at the story.
"Everybody in the North knows you don't get 911," said James Anderson, a retired school superintendent who has lived in the region for decades.
Instead of getting help, Mr. Doyle heard a recording tell him to hang up and try another number.
Every month when cellphone bills arrive, Northern Canadians are forced to pay for a 911 service they can't access.
In recent years, cellphone companies have collected millions of dollars in 911 fees in less-populated regions across Canada where the emergency number is not offered, including Yellowknife.
Those charges are part of a much larger figure that is collected each year in the name of 911.
A Globe and Mail investigation into Canada's lagging 911 system has determined at least $13-million a month is collected in 911 fees on wireless bills across the country. However, the money is not necessarily spent on emergency services - even in places where 911 service is offered.
Instead, Industry Canada documents obtained through access to information laws show the government has been advised that some of the money is padding general revenues of the wireless industry.
Canada's three largest cellphone companies, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Telus, each collected between $3.7-million and $4.8-million a month in 2008, according to a document obtained by The Globe that shows calculations recently discussed at meetings with federal regulators.
While a portion of those fees, about 10 to 20 per cent, goes toward funding 911 dispatch centres, the cellphone companies keep most of the money, which Industry Canada classifies as "surplus" cash.
"I'm not a very sophisticated man ... but to me it's fairly straightforward," Mr. Anderson said from Yellowknife.
"The phone company tells you there is no 911 service, then they charge you for 911 service."
People in the North figure they're being fleeced. The wireless carriers dispute claims their fees are unwarranted.
Keith McIntosh, director of regulatory affairs for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, says the money is used to pay costs associated with providing 911 service, such as the annual cost of linking cell carriers into the emergency dispatch system.
Since cellphones can be taken to different places, the fees are not charged according to location, the industry says.
The estimated $156-million in 911 fees collected each year across Canada is spread throughout the country's 21 million wireless subscribers.
The wireless companies are not required to disclose how their 911 money is spent, and whether they use all of it for the service, since Ottawa does not regulate the charges.
Nor do the cellphone companies voluntarily list those figures during quarterly earnings. This makes it impossible to tell whether the 911 fees, which were once needed partly to build infrastructure to link cellphones to the emergency phone system, have long since outstripped that purpose.
"These are unregulated rates, so there is no reason to break out any individual costs for any rate plans," Mr. McIntosh said.
It's only $9 a year on his bill, Mr. Anderson concedes, "but it's the principle."
With 21 million wireless subscribers in Canada, the 911 fees represent $1-billion of new revenue to the cellphone industry every 6½ years.
It is a particularly bitter pill for Yellowknife to swallow. Though Whitehorse recently installed 911 service for residents, Yellowknife is still trying to scrape together enough municipal funds.
As well as charging 911 fees that may exceed the cost of providing the service - or in the case of Yellowknife are collected for services not rendered - the phone companies do not want to contribute money to upgrading Canada's outmoded system.
Adding the ability to locate cellphone callers if a person on the line can't speak or identify a location, is estimated to cost about $50-million. Such technology, which under privacy laws in the United States and Europe can be used only when 911 is dialled, is becoming increasingly critical as cellphones proliferate.
