SOS for the rescue net
Decrepit planes. Iffy helicopters. Overtaxed rescuers. Computer glitches. And no guiding policy.
Canada’s national search-and-rescue system is struggling to keep itself afloat, according to auditor general Michael Ferguson’s latest report. The Canadian Forces and Coast Guard may be responding “adequately” to search-and-rescue calls, but part of the system is at the “breaking point” and much of it is stressed, the report warns.
That’s not what someone stuck on a broken-down fishing trawler in a storm off the Grand Banks wants to hear. Or an Inuit hunter clinging to an ice floe in the Far North. Or some hiker hopelessly lost in the bush. Canada has 18 million square kilometres of land and water to patrol, 243,000 kilometres of coastline and more extreme weather than most countries. Our rescuers respond to some 9,000 calls a year, helping 20,000 people. Given the demand, the last thing we need is a system that’s stretched too thin.
But that’s just what we’ve got on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s watch. Planned multibillion-dollar investments have been hung up for years, the Star’s Bruce Campion-Smith reports from Ottawa. Meanwhile things are being held together by binder twine and chewing gum.
The auditor’s report describes a system under the stewardship of Defence Minister Peter MacKay that lacks “an overall federal policy, planning framework, clear statement of expectations for federal SAR (search-and-rescue) services, or ability to measure overall federal SAR effectiveness.” That’s hard to square with MacKay’s claim that search and rescue is a “key front-line priority,” though it may help explain how he was able two years ago to summon up a Cormorant search-and-rescue chopper to whisk him out of a fishing trip at a remote lodge, under the guise of a training mission. And the problems don’t end there. The computerized information system that manages rescue operations “is nearing its breaking point,” the auditor warned.
Strapped for cash, the Royal Canadian Air Force continues to rely on “older airplanes that require extensive maintenance” and “helicopters that are either insufficient in number or less capable of responding.” Our Hercules aircraft are 20 years old; our Buffalos have 45 years of service. There’s been talk of replacing them since 2002, but delivery has been pushed back to 2017. The RCAF has also been forced to rely on fewer than the minimal number of capable Cormorant rescue helicopters, forcing it to press less effective Griffons into service. Here in Ontario, the Trenton search centre is equipped with four Hercules and five Griffons, leaving the province served by a helicopter deemed second-rate for search and rescue.
Finally, both the RCAF and coast guard are struggling to train, field and retain sufficient staff including air controllers, marine co-ordinators, flight engineers and search technicians.
These are disturbing findings, given recent incidents that have raised questions about search-and-rescue response times. When 14-year-old Burton Winters got lost in northern Labrador last year, it took two days for the military to join the search, delays blamed on helicopter maintenance and bad weather. He died. A few months earlier, rescuer Sgt. Janick Gilbert ran into trouble with his equipment during a rescue off Baffin Island and died in icy waters during the five-hour wait for a helicopter.
Bottom line? “Significant improvements are needed,” the auditor warns. Ottawa’s response? On Thursday MacKay danced around the edges of the problem. He announced yet another review of Canada’s search-and-rescue needs. He plans to invest $16.2 million in satellite technology and to take a few other measures to speed up rescues. But the search for a real fix goes on. And on. And on.
Much-needed investments have been on hold for years, pushing the system to the “breaking point,” the federal auditor general reports