CTV News has obtained never before heard 9-1-1 calls, but they aren't exactly life or death situations, they're examples of why the 3-1-1 service was set up.

The new non-emergency phone line will be up and running as early as next week.

9-1-1 is the number you call for help, but for years Winnipeggers have been clogging 9-1-1 with questions like this.

"This is horrible is it a.m. or pm? I'm sorry, replies the 9-1-1 operator? This is horrible, is it a.m. or p.m.? Right now, asks the operator? Yes, comes the reply? It's 6:21 p.m. Oh thank god, the response, sorry we just moved."

Definitely not the definition of emergency the creators of the system had in mind.

"I'm on Broadway and my car was just towed," responds another caller. Why are you calling 9-1-1 Sir, asks the operator?"

Winnipeg police say 20 percent of calls are classified as nuisance. They range from things like kids playing with phones, hang ups or accidental calls, but there are those that call the service with issues that don't qualify as an emergency.

Next week the city will soft launch a new phone line 3-1-1, a non-emergency number people can call for all of those issues that seem important to them but are not emergencies.

"It's very simple, if you have a problem concern a pot hole, a snow bank, a dog running loose instead of getting out the phone book looking up the appropriate number phoning some person and getting transferred to someone else you simply call 3-1-1," explains Councillor Gord Steeves.

From there operators connect callers with the information they need. Sixty city workers will be taking calls. Don't speak English, no problem, 20 percent of operators will be bilingual. The city predicts 3-1-1 will handle 80 percent of calls within 30 seconds.

"Hopefully they will be able to distinguish what is and isn't an emergency and if they have a ready alternative, something like 3-1-1 that's easy to remember, they probably will be less likely to bother the 9-1-1 operators," adds Steeves.

The City is banking on it, literally. The cost is about $31-million over the first five-years.

Listen to some of the callers by downloading the following files:

With a report from CTV's Stacey Ashley