THE VANCOUVER COURIER FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013
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Elite first responders lose funding ANDREW FLEMING Staff writer
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f and when the Big One hits Vancouver — and experts say there is more than a one in 10 chance of a major earthquake hitting the city in the next 50 years — the first responders on the scene are expected to be members of the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) task force. However, Vancouver Fire Chief John McKearney is worried the team might not be fully prepared to jump in after the federal government axed $400,000 from the unit’s annual operating budget. “The final funding to the HUSAR team ended as of April 2013,” McKearney told the Courier. “If we can achieve a $400,000 a year commitment from the federal government, that gives us the full funding model necessary to keep the team at its current state.” The money was part of the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program (JEPP) cut from last year’s federal omnibus budget bill. Similar teams in cities across the country also had their budgets slashed. Vancouver’s Canada Task Force 1, which in 1995 became the first heavy urban search and rescue team in the country, is made up of volunteer firefighters, police officers, medical personnel and engineers who train on the weekends at a $1.54 million facility off Malkin Avenue in Strathcona designed to simulate earthquake conditions and burning buildings. Along with maintaining equipment capable of keeping them self-sufficient for 10 days, they practise
techniques for rescues from collapsed buildings and high angles, as well as technical search strategies and the use of search dogs. Members of the team recently responded to deadly mudslides on the North Shore and Johnsons Landing, as well as helping with rescue operations in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. McKearney said the team receives $200,000 in annual provincial funding and $150,000 from the City of Vancouver, which isn’t enough to maintain the level of service necessary to respond to a major catastrophe. “What we’ve done is we’ve made an application to the federal government to maintain a national HUSAR program with four teams that are capable of responding to all hazardous events across the country,” said McKearney. “We’ve done the analysis and said for $400,000 a team, or $1.6 million a year, for the next three years, the teams will be able to maintain their current state and that will give us enough time to look for other funding models.” The federal government argues local and provincial governments should be responsible for the funding, and McKearney said they will likely have to scale back the highly-trained response team if the feds don’t change their mind. When the Courier expressed surprise there hasn’t been more coverage of the issue given the level of public outrage that greeted the closure of the Coast Guard station in Kitsilano due to lost federal funding, McKearney gave a sad chuckle. “You and me both.” afleming@vancourier.com twitter.com/flematic
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