Federal government commits $2M to improve Alberta search and rescue

Ottawa is committing more than $2 million to improve search and rescue (SAR) standards in Alberta.

The money will be used to develop and further professionalize SAR teams across the province by building a new governance framework, accreditation and certification for SAR personnel.

Doug Ritchie, vice president of Search and Rescue Association of Alberta, says SAR has evolved a lot since he first volunteered 30 years ago.

"I was involved with search and rescue in Alberta when it first started so I've had a chance to see it evolve. It started off with family and friends joining to search for family and friends who got lost out of their community," Ritchie said.

As Albertans began to explore the backcountry, so has the training of SAR personnel, who have evolved from volunteers to professionals over the years, Ritchie said.

Ritchie says the money announced in Banff Monday is key to making SAR in Alberta more effective, adding consistent training across different teams in Alberta.

"The certification that we're looking at, the accreditation and even the governance part are all part of becoming more and more professional so that we can meet the needs of people who are probably having the worst day of their lives," he said.

The new training will create baseline level of certification across each region and allow less busy regions that may have one rescue per year to be redeployed to busier areas.

Each region will then have a baseline for emergency civil response that could be redeployed to other regions of the province.

Ritchie said while the need for SAR services has remained relatively consistent in recent years, the expectations of the public have changed.

He said the calls also increased during the pandemic as more people ventured in the backcountry while unable to leave the province.

Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, who joined Ritchie for the announcement, said the inclement weather this winter and the elevated number of avalanche deaths show the additional funding is needed.

"This fund helps advance and innovate research and rescue across Canada as search becomes more complex than ever, and especially in light of increasingly frequent and severe climate-related extreme weather events," said Blair.

More than 1,400 search and rescue volunteers in Alberta are called on to assist in locating people who are lost, missing or in distress. The Search and Rescue Association of Alberta represents 33 SAR organizations across the province.