Who Pays For Search & Rescue
 

I am just activating my InReach Mini and this came up as an added feature. This made me questions, if I am out sheep hunting and need to active SOS due to a medical emergency, who pays for the rescue? What about if a helicopter or other advanced equipment is involved?



Additional GEOS Search & Rescue Benefit Program
Provides up to $100,000.00 USD in search and rescue resources.

This special program can insulate you from significant financial impact by providing additional search and rescue (SAR) resources that may be necessary to aid in your rescue. These resources may not be readily available to local responders (including specialized personnel, special vehicles, and equipment). The benefit gives you access to up to $100,000.00 USD in any one year with a single incident limit of $50,000.00 USD. In some countries, there is a charge for SAR, or there may be no official agency willing or able to respond. The GEOS SAR benefit can help. (Note: This prepaid annual benefit is for you and does not cover someone else using your inReach.)

$24.95 CAD*/Year Details

As far as I know, Alberta has free search and secure, if needed.

I just activated mine last week before canoe season gets going. Have some back country routes picked out and am planning to build a portage trail~1 mile to the next lakes.
Didn’t read the fine print
Here’s why
Scenario 1: I’m hurt but ok , twisted ankle or something but have fire food and shelter, that call goes to the friends on my list for rescue

Scenario 2: impaled by small stump or branch when I fall in the portage trail, significant injury , that’s an SOS, money won’t matter.

As to who pays? “tax Payers” or me personally I’ll worry about it after.
I’m thinking the individual will pay a hefty price but not the true cost of the rescue

It’s a good question you pose.
Any real life experience with rescue on here?

My Pop was rescued about 5 years ago in Newfoundland, on the rabbit trail and the weather closed in bringing darkness sooner. He was crossing a big bog and when he reached the other side he couldn’t find the trail. With 75 years of bush experience He decided to make a lean- to And stay the night. Fire and tea and a few biscuits... of course none of us knew that.

He didn’t have such a device to check in, NaN waited till 2 hours after dark before calling my dad. A dozen people from the community and a few from the cottage area started searching. A few more hours and the RCMP show up.
About 2:00 am everyone was Quite worried Now, he was diabetic And had a heart attack 15 years prior.
Search and rescue chopper shows up and as they described it “ found a man enjoying his tea in the most comfortable shelter I’ve ever seen”
Being a lumber jack for 40 years had taught him a few things. 😉

Long story short... he did not pay for anything, but he did not initiate the rescue request, the RCMP did...

This is a great story, glad your father was found in great shape., I can only guess , your dad was probably wondering why the helicopter was fly so close to him.

AAAh just add it to the list of everything else the gubermunt should pay for.....one day we can be just like Russia and they will pay for everything!!

I know stars is a free use service, paid for by donations as well as tax payers, I imagine search and rescue is as well, never used search and rescue but have spent time looking for missing folks and never got paid for myself or my horse.

My son and I were involved in getting picked up through the use of Sat phone and 911 call. We did not have to pay for the Heli rescue.
After leaveing the hospital in Grande Cache and leaveing my statement with the C.O I was told told I would be contacted if I had to pay for it.

I was also informed if I had used my SPOT that I would have had to pay for the Rescue. I cant back up those facts because my I-SPOT was not what I used to be rescued.

The only time we used it it cost us $1600 but that was dropped due to the call being made by an RCMP when we were reported missing (Long story, one thing after another, lesson learned, no communication to say we were alright, very humbling).

The way I understood it we would have had to pay had we called it in. Still pretty reasonable for all the resources involved.

I decided that for the $25 a year, it was worth it. One of those things where I'd rather pay $25 now than $1600 (or more) later if I did have to call

Good call. I’ve been using a SPOT for a long time, I check in at least 3x a day ...wifey loves knowing I’m alive.

To my knowledge, Search and Rescue services are free. The RCMP has jurisdiction for SAR services in areas not supported by a municipal police service. Park Wardens have jurisdiction within the National Parks.

RCMP is assisted by the various search and rescue groups throughout the province. While the RCMP has jurisdiction, the search and rescue groups have the highly trained volunteers that manage the search, and provide the boots on the ground.

If you are looking to volunteer for a great cause, and receive some great training, consider volunteering for your local search and rescue team. The positive feelings you get when a mission is successful, cannot be adequately described in words. :sHa_shakeshout:

I should add that if you ever find yourself in a predicament, and need assistance, don't hesitate to call for it.

Mr Conservation

I also have a Mini and when I activated it I had the same question. I contacted a buddy that does Search and Rescue and also owns a Mini. They said that for my purposes not to bother, that if I was going to go do some adventuring out of the country I might want to look at that option then.

20 years ago, A three day ride into Willmore park a friend was thrown from his horse and he snapped his ankle. One guy in the group had a sat phone so they called for heli rescue rather than try to ride out for 3 days. Cost my friend over 2K for rescue. His horse stayed with the group for another 2 weeks.

Sledders pay way more for air lifting a dead sled out of the middle of no where, I'm on the page of its for my life, I'd put in on American Express.. LOL..

interesting..
so do you think the SPOT preforms well for its purpose in say Alberta and upper BC range?
the inReach Mini also?
what would be best suited for a person hunting that area this year?

Free for me
 

I have an inreach I use for backcountry flying. I had an engine failure in 2016 close to the NWT border and had to activate it. Thankfully God keep my passenger and I from serous injury. S&R came and picked us up with a helicopter. No bill for me. They never even talked about the cost

It's nice to get a free ride back, but if your a group of hunters who hunt of the grid buy a sat phone of inreach gps. Had guy have heart attack and he was dying,they arrive in 60 minutes and saved his life ,plus the weather was wicked.

I must have own 7 or 8 sat phones, i hunted solo so I would report in at night which was al good and my location, sometimes a guy changes location which can make search and rescue look in wrong places.All my machines in the bush had one for my guys safety and in the trucks.

Have one in my boat at all the time, for the price of lousy bottle of the worst whisky crown royal you can get 30 days of safety.

If you get lost in can cost S R thousands of dollars, i think it's up to whoever is in the out doors to help the systems put in place to rescue us .

If you get hurt bad whether it's free or not,what's the value of your life?

I have call them 3 times to get hurt and dying people out,great service.

I have looked for lost hunters in some real bad places and it's no joke, a nightmare all the way.

JD

the SAT phones you have can they be activated with most any service?
if i was to buy a used one can it be activated with satellite services, recommended models ,any thoughts?

Hmmm...this seems very similar to a guy I know that got thrown and was heli-vac'ed out down in Lyall Mountain ridge.

He was choppered out at no cost.

Most SAR outfits in the western provinces do not charge for rescue.

Cost models have historically been proposed but ultimately rejected by the SAR outfits themselves. The rationale was that if someone is indeed in trouble/danger and they hesitate to make the call, their situation could get 10x worse and cost SAR 10x more in time and $ to perform the rescue.

Easy to understand why the SAR folks would prefer a quick 3-hour pick-up instead of a 2-day body recovery.

SAR costs
 

I had to pay the fees to the town of Fox Creek in 2008 after I rolled my quad down along the Simonette. STARS didn't charge me a dime for the ride to Edmonton though.

interesting

My unit did your Pops Mission.

To my knowledge, any mission carried out by a RCAF asset is prepaid by tax payers, no extra charges to anyone. Doesn't matter your colour, religion, nationality, age, bank account etc etc, RCC says go, chopper goes! Crew doesnt carry a debit/credit card reader! We prolly go to just as many foreign ships as Canadian.

I use a SPOT, gen1. Always good coverage in "Tracking Mode". Fortunately I have never used the "SOS" function! Last year the unit (103 SAR - "Outcasts") carried out 4 - 5 missions to spot type locators, I say spot type as the tasking usually comes in as a response to locator type beacon with Lat and Long.
Last year unit was tasked to an aircraft crash in Labrador. Survivor was able to text additional info regarding medical condition of his partner via device. I am not sure if it was a spot, in reach etc
Subscription $$ to these devices are not cheap but for the cost of 3 or 4 24s of beer I pay up. Ive seen too much chit in this business....dont want to be that guy!

I am sure it has been said before GunnerySgtJackson , and I am sure I speak for all here when I say thanks so much for your service !:)
Cat

Thanks Cat, much appreciated! I retired from flying a number of years ago and now work for the prime maintenance and servicing contractor for the Canadian Sar Helicopter Program. It still makes me very proud when a SAR launch takes place! Men and Women from all over Canada get aboard these machines, without question and depart into often the darkest of night and most terrible weather you could imagine! Ive never seen them NOT go!
Cheers.

I know for a fact that a SAR response in B.C. will not incur a cost to those being rescued. I did 8 years as a Ground and Inland Waters SAR tech/team leader in the Prince George area before moving back to Calgary last fall so i'm speaking from professional experience :) To the best of my knowledge, in general SAR response in Canada outside of a national park and a few specific other areas is a volunteer job just as it is in B.C. and follows the same basic guidelines.

SAR response is taxpayer funded and most SAR groups are against making it a user pay service as it is in the U.S. because of people hesitating to call.