After a record-setting year of missions into the backcountry, North Shore Rescue members say they are in need of a rescue themselves.
The team carried out two difficult and frustrating rescues over the weekend, bringing the total to 113 in 2015. The team typically faces 80 to 100 calls for help each year. It’s simply too much for the all-volunteer team, said Mike Danks, North Shore Rescue team leader.
Team members spent their Saturday evening tracking a lost hiker who refused to stay in one place, and hunkering down with another subject in a cold, wet gully for the night, waiting to be airlifted out in the morning.
Before he died, former team leader Tim Jones was lobbying the provincial government to provide up-to-date communications equipment, stand-by helicopter service and on-call pay for the busiest members.
“Oh my God. Tim would be losing it on this, for sure. I really wish he was here to lead the charge on this because at this rate, it’s not sustainable moving forward. We’re doing our best to maintain the very high level of service that we are providing in this community but we are being treated as a fourth 9-1-1 response agency,” Danks said “The only difference is we’re 100 per cent volunteer.”
Team members have collectively spent about 4,500 hours volunteering on rescue missions so far this year, Danks said. If you add in training and maintenance hours, that number is closer 20,000.
When it comes to rescue efforts, North Shore Rescue relies on mutual aid from other volunteer search and rescue outfits in nearby communities but that too isn’t sustainable, Danks said.
More than sacrificing their home lives, careers and sleep to rescue strangers in need, members face sky-high life insurance rates because of their high risk activities, and they often find themselves stuck with child care costs.
“People who volunteer for search and rescue are actually paying to be a part of this,” he said.
Charging rescue subjects isn’t an option on the table, Danks said. Already, the team finds people delay calling for help because they’re under the impression that rescues will cost them. Delaying calls just hampers search efforts, often into the night, putting the lost subject and rescuers at risk, Danks said.
Danks said he does not know what the exact solution is but he would welcome a sit-down with Premier Christy Clark.
The issue became political fodder in Question Period during the opening session of the legislature on Monday. NDP public safety critic Mike Farnworth needled North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA and Emergency Preparedness Minister Naomi Yamamoto to meet with the team and provide “more than platitudes.”
The province has provided $6.3 million to pay for operational expenditures, training and equipment this year, according to the ministry. That includes funding for members’ liability and workers’ compensation benefits, and B.C. Search and Rescue Association administrative costs. Emergency Management B.C. also contributed $406,000 and NSR received a $100,000 gaming grant.
“What I can say is that I share the frustration of the folks in search and rescue and, being a resident of the North Shore, I see people, day in and day out, ignoring the simple rules. They are not prepared. I urge everyone to make sure that if they head into our hills, they’re prepared, so we don’t have to add any additional resources to North Shore Rescue,” Yamamoto said in the legislature.
North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Jane Thornthwaite said she will convene a meeting with the North Shore’s four MLAs and North Shore Rescue leadership to look for a solution. “I can’t promise anything at this particular point because we actually haven’t sat down and talked about their priorities. Certainly, in the past I had many conversations with Tim when he was with us with regards to suggestions,” she said.
“Let’s get us all sitting down together and let’s hash out a plan and perhaps put forward a proposal to government that we will be able to agree on province-wide.”
