Rescue review: Ground Search and Rescue welcomes consultation with N.S. government

Nova Scotia is reviewing search and rescue teams to better support volunteers.

Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) teams in Nova Scotia are busier than ever and now the province is interested in taking a closer look at their growing workload and finding better ways to support them.

Halifax Search and Rescue says their call volume has nearly doubled to 31 incidents and 4,440 operation hours logged this year alone, up from 17 calls for service and 2,670 hours during the same time period between April 1 and June 4 in 2024.

The team’s emergency response work once focused solely on missing persons. That has expanded into a wider range of emergencies. In Halifax, search and rescue volunteers assist the municipality by doing wellness checks for the city’s growing homeless populations and finding shelter for people during a storm.

“We’re not just responding to missing persons calls anymore,” said Halifax search and rescue chief director Paul Service. “We’re active participants in the fire response, like the wildfire response, and we we’re active participants in the flash flooding situation.”

One of the largest ongoing search and rescue efforts in the province is for six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan who went missing from their home in Lansdowne Station, N.S., on May 2.

Colchester GSAR have been leading the volunteer effort in the thick forest around the children’s home which expanded beyond the initial search area even after RCMP reduced their exhaustive air, ground and water search.

There are 23 GSAR teams across the province and many of the 1,200 trained volunteers have been involved in the search for the missing siblings.

Large-scale searches and natural disasters like flash floods and wildfires have tested volunteer search teams but they also face financial challenges. The teams are required to fundraise to keep operations going.

“We’re really struggling on the back side,” said Service. “Volunteers only have so many hours that they can give to the community before it starts to take a toll on them.”

In a letter from the province’s department of emergency management, deputy minister Sandra McKenzie said they have hired a consultant to determine what kind work the GSAR teams do and assess how the province can better support their effort.

“As we stand up the new department, we are interested to engage with GSAR teams and better understand the evolving role GSAR teams play in Emergency Management,” wrote McKenzie in the letter.

That’s welcome news for Service, who says there’s currently no clear work arrangement in place with the province.

“We’re looking for a strategic plan,” said Service. “We need to know where we are going and how we fit into the equation and from there developing a funding model as to how we can go forward and offer those services.”

Funding is crucial right now. Halifax search and rescue said they need a new command truck – which comes with a $600,000 price tag.

Service says most of their funding comes from the Halifax Regional Municipality which gave them $90,000 last year towards their operating budget. The bulk of their donations come from their annual fundraising campaign which usually brings in $50,000 or more.

Dartmouth councillor and police board commissioner Tony Mancini calls search teams essential. He said it’s time for better coordination between all levels of government and more support to make it easier for search teams to operate on the ground.

“Policy is part of it and we need to have strong governance and policy around the search and rescue,” said Mancini. “And even as a municipality I think we can step up our support for them.”

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