PG Search and Rescue Gets Cash Infusion
MLAs Mike Morris and Shirley Bond with PG Search and Rescue’s Dave Merritt, Jeff Smedley and Trent Blair-photo 250News
Prince George, B.C.- With two major projects in the wings, Prince George Search and Rescue has been given some funding that will help them reach their goals.
MLA’s Shirley Bond and Mike Morris were on hand at the Prince George Search and Rescue home on the Hart Highway to announce PG SAR will receive $93, 364.41 this year and next. “The funding will provide Prince George Search and Rescue with the opportunity to replace some of the equipment and fund special training” says MLA Shirley Bond.
The funding is part of the $10 million dollars the Province had previously announced for Search and Rescue organizations in BC. The funding will augment dollars PG SAR is able to get through Gaming Grants as the gaming fund amounts can fluctuate. The application for a new Gaming grant has just been filed.
“We’ve got a couple of high ticket projects we’re working on ” says long time PG SAR member Jeff Smedley “Were very grateful to the Province, as this ( money) couldn’t come at a more opportune time. One of the projects we’re working on is the Class D fixed line, that’s the rope underneath a helicopter.” The closest such long line service is in Jasper, the next closest is in Kelowna. “It’s going to cost close to a 100 thousand dollars to get that going.”
The second major project is a new response vehicle says Smedley “Our truck here, we’ve had for about 16 years now. It works really good as a command vehicle, but carrying all that extra weight does take it’s toll, so we’re looking at replacing it down the road. ” Smedley says without the funding received today, PG SAR would have to go back to the public “With cap in hand, looking for donations.”
There are 80 Search and Rescue Teams across B.C., twenty four of them are located north of 100 Mile House, responsible for covering 73% of the Province. Prince George SAR is considered the ‘hub” for SAR in the north, and is often called upon to assist other Search and Rescue operations. “We are spread over a vast area” says PG SAR’s Trent Blair, “We are getting more and more rescues, but it is a large area.” He says the dollars received by PG SAR and the other Search and Rescue teams across the province are sure to put the dollars to good use.
Comments
An excellent use of some tax dollars. These folks donate time and energy to be of help to people in distress. Thanks to all of you!
So the Christy Clark government “reduces” gaming fund grants to our community non-profits orgs like PG SARS and PG Highway Rescue, then uses the money saved to go on photo Op Public Relations campaign giving out “new” money found, during a pre-election year. Smooth and slick… but most of us see right through this tactic. The proof about them reduced gaming grant funds is in the following 3 month old 250 news article.
www .250news.com/2016/03/22/not-for-profits-call-for-help/
Yup, starve these non-profits for 3 years after an election and feed them with the money saved the year before an election, same old same old.
Another photo for Shirley and Mike.. yes jgalt you are correct!
SAR spends countless hours training and searching all on their own time. It’s volunteering you guys.
The idiots that go out there unprepared, getting lost or getting buried out sledding even though warned not to go to the mountains etc…. Than there’s those who go missing. We need these people out there searching and helping. I’m glad they’re finally getting some much deserved funds. Good for the SAR
We also need highway rescue, vehicle extracation is something only they can do using the jaws of life, of course both non-profits are providing valuable services NO ONE is arguing that, what is being discussed is the pea in the shell funding game this Christy Clark government is using to say this is “new” money found for PG SARS.
I can’t wait until snivelling complainers like JDolt stop turning every imaginable news item, even good news stories like this one, into a blind partisan attack against our current government.
JDolt – we get it. You’re an unbridled NDP supporter that seems to have some creepy personal vendetta against the Premier. You need some new material.
If you want some truly new material stop insulting the hard working volunteers of the provincial Search and Rescue community – at least they’re doing something to improve the public good. Sitting on your self-entitled fat a$$ and complaining about politics that don’t fit your narrow agenda doesn’t qualify as public service.
I agree with noweiser. IMO the funds should also come from the putz’s that get “lost” while skiing, sledding, hiking etc.
It kills me that all the Dippers on this site vote thumbs down to supplying provincial funding to the volunteer Search and Rescue organizations in this province(because it doesn’t benefit them directly)but would enthusiastically stick their thumbs up almost anywhere else if it meant some increase in their own entitlement.
I can guarantee that every person that hit the thumbs down button on this issue has never searched for, or rescued anyone in their lives, except maybe themselves after scarfing down too much potato salad at a Jim Iker ‘Bad Hair and Bad Teeth’ convention.
A UBC research paper called: “A Population-Based Analysis of Injury-Related Deaths and Access to Trauma Care in Rural-Remote Northwest British Columbia” provided this information based on quantitative data collated and analyzed for patients sustaining injury in NW BC from April 2001 to March 2006.
The majority of trauma deaths (82%) in NW BC occur prehospital.
Access to local trauma services was compromised by:
1. incident discovery,
2. limited phone service (land lines/cell),
3. incomplete 911 emergency medical services system access,
4. geographical and climate challenges compounded by limited transportation options, airport capabilities and paramedic training level,
5. dysfunctional hospital no-refusal policies,
6. lack of hospital destination policies, and
7. lack of system leadership and coordination.
Improving trauma outcomes in rural-remote jurisdiction requires a systems approach to address
1. root causes of delays in access to care,
2. focusing on improved access to emergency medical services,
3. hospital bypass and destination protocols,
4. improved transportation options,
5. advanced life support transfer capability, and
6. designated, coordinated local trauma services.
This money goes to helping with “incident discovery” by funding the search teams.
The province spends very little to help individuals who are injured in remote areas. This is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the bigger picture of workers as well as recreational users of our remote areas.
The death rate of those who reach hospitals in the remote regions of BC is 1%. The reason is simple, many die because they do not reach hospitals within the “golden hour”.
Comments for this article are closed.