OSOYOOS TIMES-June 24, 2009

By Paul Everest - Osoyoos Times

The directors of the Oliver-Osoyoos Search and Rescue team are protected from the kind of lawsuit launched against an East Kootenay rescue squad by the husband of a woman who died in February, said the team’s search manager.
Jim McConnell of Oliver said the local team had third party liability insurance put in place last year which covers the team’s directors for liability or Workers Compensation Board issues.
Concerns about liability and insurance for search and rescue teams in B.C. has arisen in the wake of a lawsuit filed last month by Gilles Blackburn of Quebec against the Golden and District Search and Rescue Association.
The association is being sued in relation to the death of Blackburn’s wife, Marie-Josée Fortin, who died of hypothermia roughly one week after the couple skied out of bounds while at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
Blackburn claims in the suit that he suffered psychological and physical injuries because a ground search was not launched by the Golden rescue team, police or the resort even after distress signals were found by a helicopter company.
Media reports indicate that three rescue teams in the East Kootenay region either temporarily or indefinitely suspended service earlier this month because of the lawsuit and a number of the province’s 90 other teams are assessing their liability coverage.
At least one Okanagan team is calling on B.C.’s Provincial Emergency Program to address what it calls inadequate liability coverage.
McConnell said it costs the Oliver-Osoyoos team about $2,000 a year to provide coverage and smaller teams can’t afford such costs.
While the coverage covers the team’s directors, members are protected by the province as long as a search and rescue assignment is “tasked” out by a group such as the RCMP or the coroner’s office and the assignment is given a task number by an emergency operations centre in Victoria, McConnell said.
If the team did not have third-party liability coverage, he added, someone could directly sue a director.
The coverage is adequate enough that the team is not considering suspending service while liability concerns are addressed throughout the province.
McConnell has been on the team for 12 years and he said he is unaware of any lawsuits against the organization in the past.
Peter Prendergast, the Provincial Emergency Program’s senior regional manager for the Southern Interior, said meetings are scheduled this week between program representatives and the president of the Search and Rescue Society of B.C. to address liability issues raised by Blackburn’s lawsuit.
As of June 22, search and rescue teams in Golden and Cranbrook have suspended their service Prendergast said.
He added that there are 4,700 search and rescue volunteers across B.C. who donate more than 100,000 hours a year to rescue calls.
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