Within Canada, SAR activities span a multitude of jurisdictions:
- The Canadian Armed Forces are responsible for aeronautical incidents;
- The Canadian Coast Guard is responsible for marine incidents;
- Parks Canada is responsible within national parks; and
- Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for searches for missing persons including those who are lost or overdue on land or inland waters - commonly known as Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR), and often delegated to the police service of jurisdiction.
Ontario Provincial Parks follows under the Ontario Government
But I have a different opinion of this as sometimes the cost of the search and rescue could of been avoided for a lot different reasons.
If you go skiing and ski around to avoid the closed trails or into a marked danger zone. If you go kayaking or canoeing and go beyond your reasonable skill level and not look at weather forecasts, or not have the safety gear required. If you take your cat hiking on the edge of a cliff and the cat wanders off and you decide to rescue the cat and get stuck on the side of a cliff and need rescue from the crew from Trenton. You ask a ton of questions about paddling a famous white water canoe route, and declare yourself experts after a few on line videos and take off go paddling on your first canoe trip. dump your canoe, lose all you gear, but have the trusty satephone, requesting rescue, even when other campers told you they would come and get you in the day light. But you push panic and call 9-1-1 and no the helicopter crew is not going to drop off you off at the parked car so you can drive home. Paddling into the sunset on your unicorn floating toy into a shipping channel on the great lakes.
Those are examples I think that come to my mind and there should be a bill of some sort for this sort of rescue.
If your business has a false alarm on the fire panel, or burglary alarm you can expect a bill in the mail from your city or town for services.
Poor planning, or no planning and getting into trouble puts the rescuers in harms way.
Kayaker requiring rescue because he took on Lake Superior and did not realize he did not have the skill level, and ignored the weather forecast and dumped his boat in 5 foot waves, OPP had to come rescue him, only thing that saved him was his GPS locator.
Taking your cat hiking in the woods off leash? Then following the cat out on the edge of a cliff ( 300 feet down or up depending how you look at it)
White water canoeing and going down the river after sunset . That one is a no brainer.
Skiing into an out of bound area just to cut thru some fresh virgin powder snow and leave your marks behind.
All of these rescues should have a bill attached, even a token bill to say look stupid adventurer you need some experience before you go back out there.
Some skills are required for outdoor adventures, and those basics need to be taught and learned before they leave. Not saying they need expert map reading, or compass skills, ( GPS takes care of that). Canoe, kayaking, and boating all require some knowledge before you hit the water. Day trips and lots of them before you tackle water where you cannot see the shore line with the naked eye.
Doing a rescue of someone or something else should come with the question how much risk am I putting myself in to save this person. ( I would do anything to rescue a child but not the same risk to save my cat) before I need to be rescued.
The DIY videos have changed the way we live. made some things more easy to do, but the watcher does not get to see the skills learned and practiced to get to the level where they are able to make a real DIY video showing the skills, it was not learned in 10 minutes.
Rescue fees should be charged, enough of a fee to make you think twice before you head out and put yourself in harms way just to answer the call of having fun and living the wild life.
Sorry if I rambled but the unnecessary rescues that could of be prevented really get to me. But does give me something to laugh at and be thankful it was me out there.
Been on that cliff, been on that river, never skied on an out of bounds area, never paddled a great lake ( but on the bucket list)
