Prince George, B.C. – Prince George Search and Rescue (PGSAR) is eagerly awaiting the details of a $10 million provincial funding announcement this week.

On Wednesday, Victoria announced $10 million in one time funding for ground search and rescue crews in this province.

In the coming months the Province says the money will be spent according to the needs of the province’s 80 search and rescue crews for such things as updating equipment, providing administrative support and paying for new or additional training.

“Like the other 79 groups in the province, PGSAR is excited to see this money coming forward to help fund what we do,” says search manager Dale Bull.

“Right now there’s very few details about how it will get rolled out or how it will impact any individual groups so the devil will be in the details as to how it all works but it seems like a very good sign of a growing relationship with the provincial government.”

And though it’s been billed as a one-time funding announcement, Bull is hoping that the announcement will lead to a change in how SAR groups are funded.

“The biggest thing that would benefit many groups, not just PGSAR, would be the ability to not have to rely on gaming grants and be able to actually budget an allotment of money at the beginning of the year,” he says.

“The provincial government and the BCSAR Association are still dedicated on working towards changing how SAR is funded through the alternative funding model, and hopefully this may just lead right into that though at this point we don’t know that.”

Currently, Bull says gaming grants supply the majority of PGSAR’s operating funds. For example this year he says they received a little over $40,000 which will be the majority of funds they’ll have for the year.

He says the volunteer run organizations spends that money on a variety of things.

“Everything from paying for utilities for our building to maintenance on vehicles to post-it notes.”