INUVIK
The first challenge for a new Inuvik Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) team is to recruit members.

Recruitment for a ground search and rescue team based in Inuvik is active and ongoing until April 11. Const Marie-Josee Martel, left, and RCMP G Division search and rescue co-ordinator Jack Kruger act as instructors in the North. - NNSL file photo

Almost a year after efforts to establish a new GSAR team in Inuvik began, a three-week recruitment drive is now on.

Helping lead the charge is Jerry McKenna, the senior member of the Inuvik RCMP detachment. He's a long-time search and rescue enthusiast with more than 20 years of experience. He's been working closely on a committee which also features Alana Mero.

"We've been very lucky to have Jerry. He's done a tremendous amount of work and a phenomenal job," said Mero. "He's got experience in putting together not just a rescue team but a complete organization like we've never had before, and that was what we needed to have this happen."

The new team will not be an RCMP team, McKenna and Mero said, but a civilian-based organization with ties to emergency services, such as the Mounties, the Inuvik Canadian Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA), the Inuvik Fire Department, Parks Canada, and a number of other organizations.

It's to be an umbrella team that ties all of those resources together with a trained team, with expertise stretching from "ground-pounding" to administration, management and inventory.

"This is not an RCMP team, it is a local volunteer group that could be utilized by the police during a lost or missing person incident, similar to what is tasked by the RCMP if required for a search incident," McKenna said March 18. "I just happen to be an RCMP member who has GSAR experience and sees the need for Inuvik to have a well- trained, equipped, managed search team."

He said the concept is to develop a framework and chain of command system suited to the area and its unique challenges that can be used for many years to come.

Organization and communication are the key components in any search and rescue operation, McKenna said. It's important that every participant know and understand their role in the search to avoid duplication of efforts and contradictory approaches.

All too often, disorganized efforts by people searching for a missing person causes more problems than help, McKenna said. It's easy to go from looking for a missing person to having to conduct multiple searches for would-be searchers who run into trouble themselves.

In a worst-case scenario, organized GSAR operations might not even be aware there are missing volunteer searchers that no one knows are out there.

"We need to have that organization and framework," Mero said.

She noted the delta is unique in that it's primarily a water area, but many of the searches will happen in the winter, when it turns into solid ground.

"The delta becomes land and basically that means you have the search and rescue team out on (ice) to an extent that you wouldn't see in most places down south. That lets us have more people out whenever we have a search."

The need for a suitable organizational model means there's a pressing need for people with skills beyond simply searching the land, he said.

"Inuvik GSAR is looking for a wide variety of volunteers who possess a wide range of skills and experience. People who know the land, boat, ATV and snow machine operators, radio operators, first aid, management, website and computer skills, financial background, cooks, mechanics, GPS, SPOT, satellite phone and radio experience, manager, coordinators of emergency or major events, medical or emergency background, teachers, instructor, volunteer experience, are all needed," said McKenna.

It's particularly important to ensure that all of the equipment is accounted for, maintained properly, and that the search teams are trained in their usage. It's not helpful, McKenna said, to issue items such as satellite phones only to find out they aren't charged and registered for the year. Likewise, experienced inventory people will be needed to check that equipment that's been signed out has been returned and inspected.

McKenna explained that the RCMP is responsible for all lost or missing person investigations in the NWT except for within Parks Canada boundaries. Canada-wide, police services are the leading agency in search and rescue operations under most circumstances.

Perhaps the most common missing person reports involve people on the water, he said. Next comes berry pickers who do not return when expected.

Pickers are noted for generating missing-person reports because they tend to keep their heads down and don't landmark well, McKenna said. They'll look up and be unsure of how they got to where they are. When that happens, many times they wind up deciding to head in a wrong direction, becoming even more lost.

McKenna said the Inuvik GSAR made an application to the National Search Secretariat under its new initiative fund for funding for a two-year project to provide GSAR training and search and survival equipment.

McKenna said "a number of groups and associations have been participating in the meetings to date and invitations to participate have been extended to others."

Participants and invitees have included the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, Auxiliary Coast Guard, Parks Canada, RCMP, Inuvik Fire Department, town of Inuvik, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Hunters and Trappers Association, Canadian Rangers, Gwich’in Tribal Council, CASARA and local groups and businesses.

The recruitment drive is to be completed April 11. Social media, including Facebook and Twitter, is being used to attract people to the team, as well as more standard means. Interested candidates can apply online.

So far, the interest on social media is respectable, McKenna said, after only a couple of days.

All members of the team will receive basic training in GSAR before being assigned to roles that their skill set is suited for and that they are interested in, McKenna said.

The training portion will include 19 courses and training exercises over a two-year period. The courses will include basic and advanced search and rescue, managing lost person incidents, basic and advanced first aid, wilderness and remote first aid and incident command system, among others.

Training for the first year will be offered in Inuvik. It will be expanded to the other communities in the region during the second year.