Emergency Management B.C. is recognizing Prince George Regional Highway Rescue chief Keith Laboucan for his work improving safety on regional roads.
Laboucan has been named the province's Public Safety Lifeline Volunteer award winner for 2014 in the road rescue category.
"I was shocked... but I feel honoured," Laboucan said. "It's my passion. I've been doing it ten-plus years. [But] it's tough to talk about myself when it should be the crew and I that get this. We're all out there seven days a week, 24 hours a week, 365 days a week on call."
Laboucan started with the organization as a regular rescue volunteer and worked his way up to chief five years ago.
The annual awards acknowledge outstanding public safety volunteers in six categories: search and rescue, emergency social services, road rescue, emergency radio communications, Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) Air and a lifetime achievement award. Attorney General and Minister of Justice Suzanne Anton will present Laboucan and the other winners with their awards in a ceremony later this year in Victoria.
Prince George Regional Highway Rescue is a stand-alone volunteer road rescue service serving the rural area outside Prince George.
"Our service area is 24,000 square kilometres. It's huge," Laboucan said. "Most of the outlying areas in Prince George are the gray areas, with no volunteer fire service. [In those areas] the only people coming, if we weren't going, is the RCMP and B.C. Ambulance. [But] we make all our calls, no matter the weather, day or night."
The service responds to an average of 85 rescue calls per year, extracting people trapped in vehicles and fighting vehicle fires, he said.
As a stand-alone road rescue society, Prince George Regional Highway Rescue does not get regular government funding. It is dependent on grants and donations to operate, something Laboucan said he hopes to discuss with Minister Anton when he meets her.
"We have some pretty big backers in town. [MLAs] Shirley Bond, Mike Morris and [former MLA] Pat Bell have done a huge amount of work for us," he said.
