The volunteers of the Fort George Highway Rescue Society are used to saving lives, but who will save them?
The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is calling on the provincial government or ICBC to reinstate gaming funding for the organization, which provides the only vehicle extraction services for much of the rural area surrounding the city. Last year they were called out 68 times to assist in rescue operations.
Many of the smaller, volunteer fire departments in the area lack the equipment and training to cut apart wrecked vehicles to rescue trapped people, regional district vice-chairman Terry Burgess said.
"If [ICBC] funds the wreckers who pull the car out of the ditch, they surely should fund the rescuers who pull the people out of the car," Burgess said. "The regional district, just to keep them afloat, had to give them a grant of $50,000. We used to be about a third of their budget, now we're two-thirds."
In 2010, the rescue service received $33,000 in provincial gaming grants and direct-access bingo grants. However, in 2011 those grants were eliminated. The rescue society, cut its budget from over $94,000 in 2010 to over $73,000 this year.
The services continues to receive $15,000 to $20,000 per year in provincial funding under the emergency responder program, based on the number of calls per year.
"In 2006 their budget was $85,000. Now, in five years later, their budget is thousands less," he said.
Fort George Rescue Society Chief Keith Laboucan said the society currently has 18 volunteer members who log countless hours each year training, responding to calls, being on call, maintaining the rescue trucks and hall, and fundraising to keep the doors open.
In 2010, the society logged 38,000 volunteer hours.
"Having less money is certainly going to hit our training, the maintenance of our equipment," he said. "It means we're going to have to cut corners, and when you talking about rescuing people you shouldn't be cutting corners."
The loss of the service would mean paramedics, firefighters and police would have to extract people from crashed vehicles using whatever hand tools are available, he said.
"We're a valuable service. We've got two trucks, state-of-the-art equipment," Laboucan said. "[But] the regional district is basically our only source of funding now. It's been frustrating for us for years. We don't have reliable funding."
The society has applied for gaming grants for next year, he said, but there is no guarantees they will be granted.
"We've tried doing fundraisers in the past, but it takes money to make money," he said. "Often we've just broken even."
Minister for Public Safety and Solicitor General Shirley Bond could not be reached for comment as of press time.
