Paying Insurance for the back country?

[the_real_wild1]

I see your point. I think their taxes may be higher as they only have to work 8 months a year???? Lol. That is a guess. I know they seem to have more vacation time then we do. Anyways back to the original post

 

[Riverjet]

So what is the difference if a fireman rescues you or a S&R tech rescues you, other than who rescues you and where the rescue occurs? You are being rescued, whether from a city car crash or a remote sled crash. The number of city car crashes etc, far outnumber the remote "US/REMOTE" rescue requirements by a long shot. The amount of tax dollars spent on our type of rescues compared to what the cities spend, pales by comparison. In the big cities, people have the benefit of helicopter transport from a car crash to the nearest receiving hospital. In northern climates we northerners have the habit of dying while waiting for transport by ground, unless you live in Alberta, (nothing against that)! EVERYONE deserves the same level of treatment. You should expect to receive the same treatment no matter where you are needing to be rescued from, whether from a downtown car crash or a whistler skiing crash. Do taxpayers really know how many millions of dollars they have taken from their pay cheques that benefit the city dwellers more so than benefit themselves? Has anyone tallied the difference between what our BC elected officials pay to take a return helicopter trip from downtown Vancouver to Victoria everyday for work? Why do taxpayers allow politicians to live like kings while we poor folk die waiting for or a ride in a regular ambulance to a hospital?

Something needs to be done to reimburse the services and properly pay the volunteers that time after time bail people out of situations they've gotten themselves into. Police, Fire and EMS are already paid for in taxes, however if they have to go way out in the boonies to rescue someone then there should be a way to recover the extra costs. Rural emergency services are thin on the ground everywhere. When they have to group together to perform a rescue, it means that everyone else in their response area goes with less or no emergency service coverage, often because people are stupid or unprepared.
I have no problem with paying a permit fee for backcountry use provided:
1) ALL backcountry users have to contribute. Whether it's a direct charge or added to license plates, fishing or hunting licenses park passes etc. Nobody gets a free ride.
2) all monies raised go into emergency response and backcountry improvements and not to general revenues for the govt. That way it's a user pay system.
These services don't just happen and the people in them don't just exsist to pull someone's dumb ass out of a sling. It costs to equip them and they deserve to be compensated for risking their lives to save others (although most if not all of them might not agree with this.) if a volunteer is killed during a rescue, what happens to their family? There's no pension for them, the best they can hope for is coverage by WCB. Hardly fair to them.
The argument that people won't call for help if they know there's going to be a cost is weak. If they don't, then they'll soon be recycled into the ecosystem. Most people value their lives more than their money.

 

[LBZ]

https://www.findmespot.ca/en/index.php?cid=104

17.95 USD a year seems pretty cheap. Anybody signed up with this?

I believe that you only need this for parts of the US or foreign countries. I don't have it and used my spot last year and it worked to get a chopper for buddy that got hurt in Golden. No extra charges.

 

[Cdnfireman]

So what is the difference if a fireman rescues you or a S&R tech rescues you, other than who rescues you and where the rescue occurs? You are being rescued, whether from a city car crash or a remote sled crash. The number of city car crashes etc, far outnumber the remote "US/REMOTE" rescue requirements by a long shot. The amount of tax dollars spent on our type of rescues compared to what the cities spend, pales by comparison. In the big cities, people have the benefit of helicopter transport from a car crash to the nearest receiving hospital. In northern climates we northerners have the habit of dying while waiting for transport by ground, unless you live in Alberta, (nothing against that)! EVERYONE deserves the same level of treatment. You should expect to receive the same treatment no matter where you are needing to be rescued from, whether from a downtown car crash or a whistler skiing crash. Do taxpayers really know how many millions of dollars they have taken from their pay cheques that benefit the city dwellers more so than benefit themselves? Has anyone tallied the difference between what our BC elected officials pay to take a return helicopter trip from downtown Vancouver to Victoria everyday for work? Why do taxpayers allow politicians to live like kings while we poor folk die waiting for or a ride in a regular ambulance to a hospital?

Theres a huge difference cost-wise for remote rescues. Helicopters at $1000 per hour plus police time plus SAR time plus EMS time etc. As taxpayers I agree we should all get the same coverage for our tax dollar, but that's logistically impossible. Sounds like in BC you don't have the STARS medevac system we have in alberta. If so that's unfortunate. STARS is privately funded through donations and fundraising. Maybe it's time the oil money in northern BC anted up and support STARS the way they do in alberta.
Lets face it, there's only so much tax money to go around and politicians divert it to where it will make the most impact to their re-election. In most rural areas the fire/rescue/SAR is done by volunteers because there is not enough votes out there to warrant spending on services that responsible and civic minded people provide for free. Unfortunately these people out of their desire to better their communities ultimately prevent the politicians from ever stepping up and providing funding for a better more consistent level of service. This is why rural residents constantly get screwed when it comes to emergency services.

Then along come all of us that enjoy getting out of the city to enjoy our motorsports and other outdoor activities. Then every year some get into trouble requiring emergency intervention of various kinds. And guess who steps up and bails their asses out? The very same volunteers that do what they do because they know the government won't. This uses up already strained and underfunded services provided by the rural municipalities. That's why I would support some method of a reasonable user pay system that would help to ensure well trained, well equipped services are maintained for all recreational users and residents of the rural areas. This would help ensure we get timely and effective emergency services when we venture into the boonies, and it would demonstrate to the folks in the rural areas that we are willing to help carry the load.

 

[teamgreen]

Theres a huge difference cost-wise for remote rescues. Helicopters at $1000 per hour plus police time plus SAR time plus EMS time etc. As taxpayers I agree we should all get the same coverage for our tax dollar, but that's logistically impossible. Sounds like in BC you don't have the STARS medevac system we have in alberta. If so that's unfortunate. STARS is privately funded through donations and fundraising. Maybe it's time the oil money in northern BC anted up and support STARS the way they do in alberta.
Lets face it, there's only so much tax money to go around and politicians divert it to where it will make the most impact to their re-election. In most rural areas the fire/rescue/SAR is done by volunteers because there is not enough votes out there to warrant spending on services that responsible and civic minded people provide for free. Unfortunately these people out of their desire to better their communities ultimately prevent the politicians from ever stepping up and providing funding for a better more consistent level of service. This is why rural residents constantly get screwed when it comes to emergency services.

Then along come all of us that enjoy getting out of the city to enjoy our motorsports and other outdoor activities. Then every year some get into trouble requiring emergency intervention of various kinds. And guess who steps up and bails their asses out? The very same volunteers that do what they do because they know the government won't. This uses up already strained and underfunded services provided by the rural municipalities. That's why I would support some method of a reasonable user pay system that would help to ensure well trained, well equipped services are maintained for all recreational users and residents of the rural areas. This would help ensure we get timely and effective emergency services when we venture into the boonies, and it would demonstrate to the folks in the rural areas that we are willing to help carry the load.

Other provinces, Manitoba for example, money that insurance companies collect gets diverted to fund the Office of the Fire Commissioner. This provincial government agency than provides many services. Some of which are: public safety information, training for all firefighters(career, poc, volunteer) and various Search and Rescue specialties. Maybe we need some of our tax dollars to support an agency like that in Alberta and BC