Fort George Highway Rescue Needs Rescuing
Thursday, March 7, 2013 @ 4:15 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The Fort George Highway Rescue Society is facing a double whammy this year, and there are real concerns about its future.
These are the trained volunteers who bring the “Jaws of Life” to accident scenes outside the City limits, to free those who are trapped in their vehicles. They respond when called 24/7, every day of the year. Without them, lives would be lost.
The Society relies on two major sources of funding, a gaming grant, and dollars from the Regional District of Fraser Fort George.
Typically, the Society has received $100 thousand from the gaming grant, and $50 thousand from the Regional District. But this year, the gaming grant has been peeled back to $47 thousand. “We don’t really know why our grant was reduced” says Keith Laboucan, President of the Fort George Highway Rescue Society. He will be presenting a proposed budget to his board this evening, and will be looking for options on how they can continue their work with about 1/3 of their usual operating expenses gone, he says it will be difficult “Our trucks are getting older, it costs a lot of money to do what we do, there’s a lot of maintenance and upgrading of rescue equipment, insurances, and to just outfit one person, it costs about $25 hundred dollars.”
He says he has sent a letter to gaming asking for a reconsideration of the grant and has yet to connect with Gaming. “I don’t know if Gaming understands, but it is all volunteer based, I am Chief of operations, and Admin.
In addition to the cut in the gaming grant, there is a very real possibility their lease at their base at 4055 15th Avenue, is up this year, and they suspect the landlord has other plans for the property. “We have seen engineers doing surveys, and some traffic studies, so we fully expect our lease won’t be renewed and the landlord will move forward with other plans for the property, so in essence, we will be homeless.”
The Fort George Highway Rescue Society answers calls from all the regions outside of the City of Prince George limits that are under the Regional District of Fraser Fort George umbrella. It means they are responsible for helping volunteer fire departments and areas with no fire service, within a 24 thousand square kilometre region when it comes to getting people out of a vehicle so they can be treated for their injuries.
The Society has been in operation for about 33 years and although there have been plans for a new home at the end of 18th Avenue and Foothills, that project is expected to cost about $800 thousand dollars. “We have never ever had a home, we continually have to fight to keep this organization open to save people, that makes no sense to me.” Laboucan says he has been with the Society for a decade, and is dedicated to it “Without this service, someone is going to pay the ultimate price, so it does not make any sense to me when we are equipped with the knowledge, the expertise, the manpower we have and we just can’t get that proper support.”
Laboucan says he now understands how the Highway Rescue in Golden felt when they finally shut their doors “They said they were tired, burned out, and just couldn’t carry on anymore. It’s amazing to think that highway 5, how busy that highway is, doesn’t have a highway rescue service.”
Comments
First the coast guard…now this…to heck with BC residents we would rather fund Bollywood….
It is absolutely unconcionable that all levels of government continue to ignore this vital service.
It is obvious to me that to date no self important persons (mid level government employees and up, bureaucrats, etc) have personally experienced the tragedy of losing a loved one to a car wreck because they could not be extricated in time.
Who will perform this service if the Highway Rescue Society has to shut down? I know first hand that not all volunteer F.D.s have the necessary extrication equipment, even if they all did, their territories are strictly limited. In other words, they are not permitted to effect rescue or attend a fire beyond the boundaries established by the Regional District. This means that without the Fort George Highway Rescue Society, there is no guarantee of relatively prompt assistance to victims of car wrecks outside municipal and regional boundaries. I can’t believe that governments at all levels continue to take volunteer fire departments, rescuers and first responders for granted. Chronic short sightedness, a fixation on re-election, intense concentration on ass covering, lack of focus on problems in their own areas of responsibility, all indicators of modern politicians.
Perhaps the tzars in the gaming commission could deign to allow rescue societies to conduct a lottery, if they are unable to maintain funding due to an upcoming election?
Very angry about this.
metalman.
I hear your frustration metalman,
Here we have another example of gaming money being clawed back and subverted to the hidden agendas of the provincial government of the day. When 6/49 and the other provincial lotteries were established/legalized in the early 80s, the moneys from these activities were promised to go to the Arts and Sports communities along with community service agencies like Ft George Highway Rescue. The local bingo money, etc. was to be a part of the mix. Since then, we have seen provincial gov’t time and time again pull money out of these commitments and back into “general revenues”.
At the same time, we continue to see the provincial gov’t increased spend money on party partisan activities (i.e. Christy’s current pre-election ad campaign) while real money gets pulled out programs like safety services and community development.
Looks like like the current gov’t has conceded the election, written off the Northern ridings and is now into a torch and burn retreat. Hey, it worked for the Russians when invaded by Napolean.
How can funding being reduced with no explanation? The default should be that funding is maintained unless a reasonable, public explanation is given for the reduction. It is not like somebody’s friend is getting rich off Highway Rescue activity. (Or maybe that is the problem..tongue in cheek)
My endless thanks goes out to the many Highway Rescue volunteers, their countless hours and significant monies from their own pockets. It all started many years ago (kudos Dave H. and gang) and the legacy continues to serve our communities well to this day. Don’t give up!!!
Maybe they could have made the large loan to the Commonwealth Group not interest free and funded some of these essential services for ALL community members benefit.
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