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Alta. search and rescue group applauds insurance legislation

CALGARY — Alberta search and rescue groups are applauding the passage of legislation that will see the provincial government pay for liability insurance for volunteer search organizations.

CALGARY — Alberta search and rescue groups are applauding the passage of legislation that will see the provincial government pay for liability insurance for volunteer search organizations.

The issue was highlighted last May when a woman from Quebec died after she and her husband skied out of bounds at a resort near Golden, B.C., and spent days lost in the rugged mountainous region.

Gilles Blackburn, 51, filed lawsuits against a local search and rescue group, the RCMP and the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort after his 44-year-old wife Marie-Josee Fortin froze to death during their 10-day ordeal which began on Feb. 15.

Blackburn is suing for negligence, alleging that between Feb. 17 and 21, all three organizations were informed of SOS signals he stamped into the snow in the area about 700 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, but did not launch a search.

In a statement of defence filed in court, the three organizations say that the couple made a “deliberate choice” to ski out of bounds and can’t blame others for the tragic consequences.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Until now, search and rescue groups have been forced to pay for their own insurance, said Don Drebert, the vice-president of Search and Rescue Alberta.

He says paying those costs themselves would often cut into already limited budgets for training and rescue gear.

“It’s a safety net to protect groups and more importantly for the government to recognize the value of the service we provide,” he said.

There’s traditionally been a lot of training, and therefore a lot of fundraising that such groups have been forced to do, Drebert said.

“There’s a lot of specialized training team members get involved with that is paid either out of pocket by individual members or that’s funded by the team.”

Drebert estimated the cost of buying insurance for all of the province’s 40 search and rescue groups and 1,500 volunteers is “between $75,000 and $80,000 a year.”

Despite this extra help from the Alberta government, Drebert said more needs to be done for groups like his.

“The liability protection through Bill 6 is only one piece of the puzzle,” he said.

Drebert said they’re also working with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency to ensure there’s disability and accident insurance for search and rescue members.