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

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 GSAR 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 GSAR 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 GSAR 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 GSAR 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.'
For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page

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Medical Society of P.E.I. plans legal action over alleged breach of contract

CBC

44 minutes ago

Medical Society of P.E.I. plans legal action over alleged breach of contract

The Medical Society of Prince Edward Island plans legal action against Health P.E.I. over an update to targets for family physicians. The society says the new targets are going to drive family physicians out of the province, and said it has been "stonewalled" when it comes to consultation with the government. Health P.E.I.'s new operational guide includes key performance indicators, or KPIs, that include a requirement that each family doctor will see 24 patients a day, based on an average appointment being 15 minutes long. It also says each full-time family doctor should have a minimum of 1,600 patients on the books. Penalties can be imposed if the minimum isn't met. "Early feedback suggests these KPIs risk making family practice unsustainable, will drive physicians out of P.E.I., and deter new physicians from practicing in P.E.I.," the medical society said in a June 3 letter to its members. "MSPEI will respond to Health PEI with legal action." Dr. Krista Cassell, the society's president, said that the targets were not discussed with doctors. She said they had been feeling good about a new contract signed just last year. "This was transformational," she said. 'It was a very competitive contract. It really was the best in the country, and we were incredibly excited for this." But Cassell said it became much harder earlier this year to have productive conversations with Health P.E.I. and the Department of Health and Wellness. Then the society learned about the new guide. CBC asked for an interview with provincial officials. It received a statement from Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser. "We are working with the Medical Society of PEI and the Government of Prince Edward Island to implement the physician services agreement in a way that supports physicians and strengthens our health-care system," said Fraser. "We are committed to doing that process within the terms of the agreement." The statement also said the province "made an historic investment of $188 million in the new physician services agreement, which puts P.E.I. longitudinal family physicians amongst the top earners in the country, with a 36 per cent increase." It also cited the ability for doctors to diversify their practice, a reduction in administrative work, and "unprecedented vacation, maternity and paternity benefits." Cassell said the agreement held a lot of potential for helping a strained health-care system. "We were excited for the potential of keeping some of our physicians that … we've been losing over the last number of years. And we were excited about the potential of recruiting more." Cassell said that collaboration is key. She said that over the past decade, members of the medical society have been "good problem solvers" with the government and Health P.E.I. But in recent weeks, Cassell said, "what we found was that not only is our input not being sought or not followed, but in fact it's been quite overtly ignored." 'Critical turning point' For Green Party MLA Matt MacFarlane, this development marks a "critical turning point" in the province's relationship with family doctors. "I really don't know why government is taking this approach.... It's been completely top-down without consultation with the physician community and it imposes some pretty serious items that the doctors are really going to struggle with," MacFarlane said.