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Search and rescue capabilities in Canada’s vast North expanded last year with the establishment of two new civilian search and rescue units in Canada’s North.
At the same time, Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA) certified 30 civilian search and rescue spotters for the new units, located in Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet, Nunavut, thereby strengthening Canada’s search and rescue capabilities in the high Arctic.
“The training was absolutely tremendous,” says Mike Daniels, founding member and past president of CASARA National, and founder and president of CASARA Ontario. “We put our new spotters through their paces and we can now say with certainty that we have added new areas of coverage in the Arctic thanks to the volunteers who came forward for the training.”
In Canada, search and rescue is a shared responsibility among federal, provincial or territorial and municipal governments, as well as air, ground and maritime volunteer search and rescue organizations.
The Canadian Armed Forces have the primary responsibility for providing aeronautical search and rescue services (that is, searching for downed aircraft) while the Canadian Coast Guard has primary responsibility for maritime search and rescue services. National Defence coordinates the aeronautical and maritime search and rescue system.
In Canada, ground search and rescue is conducted under the legal authority of the individual provinces and territories. The Canadian Armed Forces may, however, assist in ground search and rescue efforts if asked to do so by the responsible provincial/territorial or municipal authority.
The Canadian Armed Forces sponsor and fund CASARA, a volunteer organization established in 1985 that augments the military’s capacity to respond to air incidents. The organization makes private aircraft and trained volunteer crews available for search and rescue missions. The CASARA aircraft and crews provide search and communications services.
Daniels coordinated, designed and helped deliver the training for the new civilian spotters, along with Brian Bishop, vice president of CASARA Ontario training and operations, and Captain Claude Courcelles, the Ontario liaison officer from 424 Search and Rescue Squadron, 8 Wing Trenton, Ontario.
CASARA leased Twin Otter aircraft, along with civilian air crews, from Kenn Borak Air for the flying portion of the course.
Altogether, approximately 30 new spotters were trained, including Clare Kines, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, who lives and works in Arctic Bay. He volunteered for the training to participate in Arctic search and rescue operations in the air and on the ground, as well as to find members of his community who may become lost or stranded.
“The indigenous people who live in Arctic Bay probably spend 90 per cent of their time on the land; it’s part of their culture and it’s always been that way. We have to be able to respond quickly should something go wrong,” he said.
After some classroom instruction, the student spotters went flying in the Twin Otter. Instructors had pre-positioned volunteers on the ground or ice floes to act as lost hunters and fishermen along the search routes. Students then had to locate the “missing” people and report their position using the skills they were taught.
“We learned the methodology behind being a spotter such as never look away, look left to right, out to in or in to out, or call out when you think you see something,” said Kines.
“Part of the challenge up here is judging distance. It’s very difficult because there are no points of reference, no trees. We’ve got a lot of water and ice; it’s very mountainous so we had to practice gaining that perspective depending on the altitude of the plane. In some ways it might be easier up here because there are no trees to get in the way but in other ways there’s a lot of area up here.”
In 2014, CASARA will be investigating the feasibility of standing up three new units in Nunavut.
The challenge of Canadian geography
Canada’s search and rescue area of responsibility covers 18 million square kilometres of land, inland waters and sea. In an area as vast and unpopulated as the Arctic, the Canadian Armed Forces must be able to draw upon as many capabilities as possible in the event of a major air disaster or other catastrophic event. Having trained spotters who can initiate search and rescue launches increases the chances of finding people alive and helps keep the search and rescue system operating efficiently.
Aeronautical and maritime search and rescue is coordinated by three Joint Rescue Coordination Centres and four dedicated search and rescue squadrons strategically located across the country.
In addition to responding to search and rescue emergencies, the organizations also invest time and resources to help prevent incidents from occurring. United by the common theme of “working together to save lives”, the collective work of citizens, volunteers, municipal, provincial, territorial and federal organizations forms the partnership and backbone of Canada’s national search and rescue program.
Specially trained Canadian Armed Forces search and rescue crews respond to thousands of incidents, saving lives across Canada every year.
