From mavada at cruzinternet.com Tue Jul 7 18:58:44 2009 From: mavada at cruzinternet.com (monica) Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 18:58:44 -0600 Subject: [SARA-Members] Meeting with Ministers Message-ID: <20090708005838.781F72A002@concord.cuug.ab.ca> Hi, Over the last month there has been a lot of media interest surrounding the lawsuit involving Golden Search and Rescue and the subsequent withdrawal of Golden SAR's services. SAR Alberta has been pressing the insurance issue with government of Alberta both through AEMA and the Minister's office. Meetings were also held with the Solicitor General, and MP and federal Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose. Following are summaries of each of those meetings. SAR Alberta will also be sending out a letter to all the MLA's in the province explaining how SAR works in this province and the important role search and rescue has at a community level. We are encouraging all teams to contact their MLA's this summer to discuss with them the various issues around SAR. Don Drebert and myself also meet with Colin Lloyd of AEMA and discussed how our two organizations can better move forward. I will be sending out a separate email that summarizes that discussion. If you have any questions on the information below please contact your regional rep or myself. Sincerely, Monica Ahlstrom President SAR Alberta Meetings with Ministers Over the last two weeks meetings have been held with two provincial Ministers and one federal one on the insurance issue. Following are summaries of those meetings. Ministers Minister Ray Danyluk - Minister for Municipal Affairs Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) falls under his portfolio June 24, 2009 On June 24 VP Don Drebert and President Monica Ahlstrom met with Minister Danyluk to discuss the insurance issue in regard to search and rescue. Two of the Minister's staff members were also present. We presented the Minister with the insurance coverage options available for search and rescue from the SARVAC program that was set up in conjunction with Algoma insurance. Algoma has quoted that to cover all the teams in the province with liability insurance, directors and officers insurance and extended disability it would cost around $75,000 plus tax for $2 million liability or around $90,000 plus tax for $5 million liability. We also mentioned that there was a initiative underway by SARVAC to have the insurance covered nationally. Minister Danyluk noted that he did not want to duplicate service as it was his understanding that individuals are covered when they are tasked by the RCMP and the municipalities. This is not entirely true - the RCMP policy from Ottawa does provide for coverage for various volunteers when under the direction of the RCMP and search and rescue would be under that coverage - so according to the RCMP there would be liability protection - but only when you are tasked. Golden is being sued for not responding - they didn't respond because they were not tasked.. So they therefore would not be covered. There also needs to be more research on whether or not you are covered when you are tasked by the EPS or Calgary Police. The coverage also does not extend to the society itself which is considered a legal entity under the law. So if you are an individual on a board you would not be covered if you did not have extra insurance. The Minister was also told that you are covered by the municipality when you go out on a disaster. In speaking with Jubilee Insurance - this may not be the case either, SAR Groups that have coverage with Jubilee are definitely covered but how groups are covered by a municipality when they are tasked needs to be clarified, at least to SAR Alberta and the groups. It was pointed out that it may be cheaper in the long run to have every team in the province covered by the Algoma or another broad policy than to try and fix all the gaps that exist by individual policies. Though we asked the Minister to consider the Algoma insurance coverage for the whole province - it was decided that some time would be spent looking at all the options and what is actually going on now. A number of teams do have insurance coverage through Jubilee insurance which is an insurance program set up by the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. The teams under this policy have at least $15 million coverage - Jubilee is looking at their coverage to ensure that there are no gaps for search and rescue volunteers. Having all the teams covered by Jubilee may be another option. The Minister also noted that a bill is being put forward, Bill 49, that will protect volunteer fire fighters from being sued in the first place. There was some suggestion that this could be an option for SAR as well. Because the insurance issue is complex we agreed that SAR Alberta will work with the Executive Assistant to the Minister Ethan Bayne, and with the Executive Director of Operations for AEMA Colin Lloyd, to research all the options and find a solution. However, the issue can't drag out for any length of time as it is neither fair nor appropriate for the government to expect SAR groups and individuals to continue to expose themselves to the risk of a lawsuit without support. Colin Lloyd, has committed to working on this issue directly -however, he is away until the 13th of July. The Minister's Assistant has been researching the issue as have I. By the end of July there should be some meaningful decision made on this issue. SAR Alberta will seek written confirmation on all the insurance issues and policies. Outcomes: 1. AEMA, the Ministers Office and SAR Alberta will research all the options and come up with a solution to the insurance issue. 2. SAR Alberta is and will remain under Municipal Affairs through AEMA - and AEMA will work with SAR Alberta to give search and rescue the administrative support it needs Overall it was a positive first meeting with a willingness on all parts to work through the insurance issue Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security Fred Lindsay June 30, 2009 Minister Fred Lindsay - SAR Alberta President Monica Ahlstrom Minister Lindsay and I met on June 30 to discuss the SAR insurance issue. Minister Lindsay happens to be the MLA for the region in which I live. He was interested in the insurance issue and was given the information on the Algoma insurance. He asked if Minister Danyluk had offered to cover the cost of the insurance. I noted that all the options were being reviewed and that Minister Danyluk was trying to avoid duplication of coverage. Minister Lindsay understood that but suggested we get everything in writing from all parties involved, including the RCMP. I asked that the Solicitor General and his department make a conscious effort to stay in the loop with search and rescue as we are a major resource for the police in this province. He asked that he be kept informed on the insurance issue and had asked for more information on the work SAR does in particular in respect to evidence searches. I will be gathering that information, with help from the statistics Rodney Dietrich gathered earlier, and will be sending Minister Lindsay the information early next week. MP and Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose SAR Alberta President and Past President SARVAC - Monica Ahlstrom July 2, 2009 Minister Ambrose is the federal Member of Parliament for the area in which I live. She was interested in knowing more about the insurance issue - not only from a provincial perspective but also from a federal one. I gave her an overview of the situation in Alberta and SAR Alberta's meeting with Minister Danyluk - she suggested that I also meet with Solicitor General Fred Lindsay - and was glad to hear that I had already done that. The discussion centered around SARVAC and the role that it plays nationally and how their could be a national solution to the insurance issue through the National SAR Champion - the RCMP. She was interested in the various political entities involved in SAR at the federal level and noted that having an agency like the National Search and Rescue Secretariat could help cut through the many jurisdictional issues at the federal level. She noted jurisdictional issues are a common problem that affect a lot of issues within government. She has asked her staff to pass on information around the insurance issue to the Minister of Public Safety - the RCMP fall under that Ministry federally. She is also going to encourage that Minister to meet with the President of SARVAC to discuss the insurance issue and the issue of the national champion for GSAR. She noted she will be watching to see how the issue is handled in Alberta as well. SARVAC will be sending me some follow up information to pass on to Minister Ambrose. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090707/35dbe9ef/attachment-0001.html From Marc.Symbaluk at teck.com Thu Jul 9 07:11:10 2009 From: Marc.Symbaluk at teck.com (Symbaluk Marc TeckCoal) Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 06:11:10 -0700 Subject: [SARA-Members] Meeting with Ministers In-Reply-To: <28D279E085DA491CBE4E6E5FD8814844@JULIEPC> References: <28D279E085DA491CBE4E6E5FD8814844@JULIEPC> Message-ID: <17092504FFD51942ACE0AB07D00E3C7108E29C9F63@CGYEXCP01.teckcominco.loc> Thanks for these efforts. This is very important - and confirmation of existing coverage and standardization will make individual SAR groups better aligned and able to ensure that members and boards are adequately covered to conduct operations. Cheers, Marc Hinton SAR From: Julie Aardema [mailto:jaardema at shaw.ca] Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 7:31 PM To: "Undisclosed-Recipient:;" Subject: Fw: [SARA-Members] Meeting with Ministers ----- Original Message ----- From: monica To: sara-members at castrov.cuug.ab.ca Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 6:58 PM Subject: [SARA-Members] Meeting with Ministers Hi, Over the last month there has been a lot of media interest surrounding the lawsuit involving Golden Search and Rescue and the subsequent withdrawal of Golden SAR's services. SAR Alberta has been pressing the insurance issue with government of Alberta both through AEMA and the Minister's office. Meetings were also held with the Solicitor General, and MP and federal Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose. Following are summaries of each of those meetings. SAR Alberta will also be sending out a letter to all the MLA's in the province explaining how SAR works in this province and the important role search and rescue has at a community level. We are encouraging all teams to contact their MLA's this summer to discuss with them the various issues around SAR. Don Drebert and myself also meet with Colin Lloyd of AEMA and discussed how our two organizations can better move forward. I will be sending out a separate email that summarizes that discussion. If you have any questions on the information below please contact your regional rep or myself. Sincerely, Monica Ahlstrom President SAR Alberta Meetings with Ministers Over the last two weeks meetings have been held with two provincial Ministers and one federal one on the insurance issue. Following are summaries of those meetings. Ministers Minister Ray Danyluk - Minister for Municipal Affairs Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) falls under his portfolio June 24, 2009 On June 24 VP Don Drebert and President Monica Ahlstrom met with Minister Danyluk to discuss the insurance issue in regard to search and rescue. Two of the Minister's staff members were also present. We presented the Minister with the insurance coverage options available for search and rescue from the SARVAC program that was set up in conjunction with Algoma insurance. Algoma has quoted that to cover all the teams in the province with liability insurance, directors and officers insurance and extended disability it would cost around $75,000 plus tax for $2 million liability or around $90,000 plus tax for $5 million liability. We also mentioned that there was a initiative underway by SARVAC to have the insurance covered nationally. Minister Danyluk noted that he did not want to duplicate service as it was his understanding that individuals are covered when they are tasked by the RCMP and the municipalities. This is not entirely true - the RCMP policy from Ottawa does provide for coverage for various volunteers when under the direction of the RCMP and search and rescue would be under that coverage - so according to the RCMP there would be liability protection - but only when you are tasked. Golden is being sued for not responding - they didn't respond because they were not tasked.... So they therefore would not be covered. There also needs to be more research on whether or not you are covered when you are tasked by the EPS or Calgary Police. The coverage also does not extend to the society itself which is considered a legal entity under the law. So if you are an individual on a board you would not be covered if you did not have extra insurance. The Minister was also told that you are covered by the municipality when you go out on a disaster. In speaking with Jubilee Insurance - this may not be the case either, SAR Groups that have coverage with Jubilee are definitely covered but how groups are covered by a municipality when they are tasked needs to be clarified, at least to SAR Alberta and the groups. It was pointed out that it may be cheaper in the long run to have every team in the province covered by the Algoma or another broad policy than to try and fix all the gaps that exist by individual policies. Though we asked the Minister to consider the Algoma insurance coverage for the whole province - it was decided that some time would be spent looking at all the options and what is actually going on now. A number of teams do have insurance coverage through Jubilee insurance which is an insurance program set up by the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. The teams under this policy have at least $15 million coverage - Jubilee is looking at their coverage to ensure that there are no gaps for search and rescue volunteers. Having all the teams covered by Jubilee may be another option. The Minister also noted that a bill is being put forward, Bill 49, that will protect volunteer fire fighters from being sued in the first place. There was some suggestion that this could be an option for SAR as well. Because the insurance issue is complex we agreed that SAR Alberta will work with the Executive Assistant to the Minister Ethan Bayne, and with the Executive Director of Operations for AEMA Colin Lloyd, to research all the options and find a solution. However, the issue can't drag out for any length of time as it is neither fair nor appropriate for the government to expect SAR groups and individuals to continue to expose themselves to the risk of a lawsuit without support. Colin Lloyd, has committed to working on this issue directly -however, he is away until the 13th of July. The Minister's Assistant has been researching the issue as have I. By the end of July there should be some meaningful decision made on this issue. SAR Alberta will seek written confirmation on all the insurance issues and policies. Outcomes: 1. AEMA, the Ministers Office and SAR Alberta will research all the options and come up with a solution to the insurance issue. 2. SAR Alberta is and will remain under Municipal Affairs through AEMA - and AEMA will work with SAR Alberta to give search and rescue the administrative support it needs Overall it was a positive first meeting with a willingness on all parts to work through the insurance issue Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security Fred Lindsay June 30, 2009 Minister Fred Lindsay - SAR Alberta President Monica Ahlstrom Minister Lindsay and I met on June 30 to discuss the SAR insurance issue. Minister Lindsay happens to be the MLA for the region in which I live. He was interested in the insurance issue and was given the information on the Algoma insurance. He asked if Minister Danyluk had offered to cover the cost of the insurance. I noted that all the options were being reviewed and that Minister Danyluk was trying to avoid duplication of coverage. Minister Lindsay understood that but suggested we get everything in writing from all parties involved, including the RCMP. I asked that the Solicitor General and his department make a conscious effort to stay in the loop with search and rescue as we are a major resource for the police in this province. He asked that he be kept informed on the insurance issue and had asked for more information on the work SAR does in particular in respect to evidence searches. I will be gathering that information, with help from the statistics Rodney Dietrich gathered earlier, and will be sending Minister Lindsay the information early next week. MP and Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose SAR Alberta President and Past President SARVAC - Monica Ahlstrom July 2, 2009 Minister Ambrose is the federal Member of Parliament for the area in which I live. She was interested in knowing more about the insurance issue - not only from a provincial perspective but also from a federal one. I gave her an overview of the situation in Alberta and SAR Alberta's meeting with Minister Danyluk - she suggested that I also meet with Solicitor General Fred Lindsay - and was glad to hear that I had already done that. The discussion centered around SARVAC and the role that it plays nationally and how their could be a national solution to the insurance issue through the National SAR Champion - the RCMP. She was interested in the various political entities involved in SAR at the federal level and noted that having an agency like the National Search and Rescue Secretariat could help cut through the many jurisdictional issues at the federal level. She noted jurisdictional issues are a common problem that affect a lot of issues within government. She has asked her staff to pass on information around the insurance issue to the Minister of Public Safety - the RCMP fall under that Ministry federally. She is also going to encourage that Minister to meet with the President of SARVAC to discuss the insurance issue and the issue of the national champion for GSAR. She noted she will be watching to see how the issue is handled in Alberta as well. SARVAC will be sending me some follow up information to pass on to Minister Ambrose. ________________________________ _______________________________________________ SARA-Members mailing list SARA-Members at castrov.cuug.ab.ca http://castrov.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sara-members ________________________________ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.375 / Virus Database: 270.13.7/2222 - Release Date: 07/07/09 05:53:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090709/e1a9dad0/attachment-0001.htm From mavada at cruzinternet.com Thu Jul 9 22:50:40 2009 From: mavada at cruzinternet.com (monica) Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 22:50:40 -0600 Subject: [SARA-Members] Participants needed for Adventure Smart training Message-ID: <20090710045045.002E123009@concord.cuug.ab.ca> In conjunction with SARVAC SAR Alberta will be sending seven people to Toronto to be trained as presenters in the Adventure Smart program. Adventure Smart is a preventative education program that is comprise of three key presentations, Hug-A-Tree, Survive Outside and Snow Safety. SARVAC through a NIF grant will cover the expenses of those being sent. Further information is provided in the document above. It is hoped all the SAR teams in the province will adopt the Adventure Smart program as part of their preventative education services to their communities. The program will come with materials and training resources, and there is another year of funding through SARVAC that will be used for further training. We hope that all teams in the province will also ensure that their members receive the three programs so they know what it is all about. Please note, that there is some strict guidelines in place for the Hug-A-Tree program - the content of the course cannot be altered in any way as it is copyrighted. If you are presenting Hug-A-Tree please review the material to ensure you are following the copyrighted program. Thanks Monica Ahlstrom President SAR Alberta -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090709/dd9b3132/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: AdventureSmart_Criteria.doc Type: application/msword Size: 35840 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090709/dd9b3132/attachment-0001.doc From mavada at cruzinternet.com Sun Aug 30 08:38:53 2009 From: mavada at cruzinternet.com (monica) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:38:53 -0600 Subject: [SARA-Members] Provincial Wide Exercise Message-ID: <20090830144536.9C45E1B003@concord.cuug.ab.ca> IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT Provincial SAR Exercise October 24, 25 2009 Chambers Creek - west of Rocky Mountain House All teams invited to attend On October 24 and 25 Rocky Mountain House Volunteer Search and Rescue will be hosting a provincial wide search and rescue exercise in cooperation with SAR Alberta. The exercise will be held at Chamber's Creek about 20 minutes west of Rocky Mountain House on Highway 11. All teams in the province are invited and encouraged to send participants. The exercise will focus on search and rescue skills and will include real-to-life scenarios. The exercise will be run as though it was an actual incident. AEMA, the RCMP, and CASARA will be involved , other organizations have also expressed interest. A number of VIP's and the media will also be invited to attend. The purpose of this event is to build further interoperability between the SAR teams in Alberta and between Search and Rescue and other emergency response organizations in the province. It will be an excellent opportunity to work with other teams, and organizations and to exchange ideas and information. It will also help define areas of strength for SAR in general and areas in which there needs to be improvement. Communications - both personal and technical will be a focus for the evaluators. Some expenses for travel will be paid to those attending. On the Saturday evening there will be a catered meal for all the participants. Other meals will be brought in as though at a real event. There is a campground across the road for camping if the weather is good. Some of the other details are still being worked on and will be passed on when they are finalized. It is requested that each team send at least 3 people to attend the event - more is fine too. Participants will be expected to come prepared - as though responding to a real event. The event will start Saturday morning and run until noon on Sunday. There will be a number of operational periods and the event will run through the night. Please get this message out to your team and start recruiting members to attend. A letter is being sent to all the Presidents and training officers of all SAR teams asking for participation and to RSVP with the members to be sent. If you are interested in participating please get a hold of your President or team training officer. For more information please contact Edward Van Heeran at extreme11 at telusplanet.net As more detailed information becomes available it will be sent on. I hope to see you there. Sincerely, Monica Ahlstrom President SAR Alberta -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090830/3988c9ff/attachment.html From mavada at cruzinternet.com Mon Aug 31 18:19:46 2009 From: mavada at cruzinternet.com (monica) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:19:46 -0600 Subject: [SARA-Members] Correction to email address for Provincial Exercise Message-ID: <20090901001948.D545F4501C@concord.cuug.ab.ca> Please note correction: Contact for SAR provincial exercise Edward Van Heeran - President Rocky SAR Xtreme11 at telusplanet.net Or President at rockysar.com Monica Ahsltrom President SAR Alberta -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090831/a792849d/attachment.htm From jack_humphries at shawbiz.ca Thu Sep 24 09:55:50 2009 From: jack_humphries at shawbiz.ca (Jack) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:55:50 -0600 Subject: [SARA-Members] SARAB telecomms Message-ID: The enclosed attachments are sent out at the request of Monica Ahlstrom and are of an important nature. Please peruse them at the earliest possible opportunity, and implement them with your teams . Any queries can be directed to me at the following email or by phone at 403-556-6775. Thank you. John R. (Jack) Humphries Search and Rescue Association of Alberta Telecommunications Committee Chairman jack_humphries at shawbiz.ca -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090924/a48a425d/attachment.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: telecommsstandard Training.doc Type: application/msword Size: 1686528 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090924/a48a425d/attachment-0002.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TelecommsStandard PROTOCOL.rtf Type: application/msword Size: 158994 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090924/a48a425d/attachment-0001.wiz -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Telecom Cover Note.doc Type: application/msword Size: 25600 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://castrov.dyndns.org/pipermail/sara-members/attachments/20090924/a48a425d/attachment-0003.doc From mavada at cruzinternet.com Fri Sep 25 15:55:59 2009 From: mavada at cruzinternet.com (Monica Ahlstrom) Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:55:59 -0600 Subject: [SARA-Members] AEMA Summit Invitation Message-ID: <20090925215601.2D55E110AE@concord.cuug.ab.ca> Dear SAR members, Search and Rescue members are being invited to attend this year's AEMA Stakeholder Summit - for more information on the summit please visit the website below. The summit will be held in Calgary Nov 3 and 4. Last year the session filled up very quickly so if you are interested please register as quickly as you can. The summit will be broken into six key session - one of which you will sit in on. - Monica- The following information is from AEMA: The topics of these meetings are: * Management of response to major and catastrophic emergencies; * Emergency dispatch and 911; * Health emergencies, including H1N1; * Emergency management education and training; * The Incident Command System; and * Recovery, including rebuilding, and resiliency. You may want several people from your organization to attend in order to participate in more than one meeting This year's Stakeholder Summit is six high-level meetings of leaders within the Alberta emergency management system designed to increase emergency management system collaboration, provide a forum to address challenges, develop solutions and create common understandings and identify other sources of assistance. We determined the six topics based on your feedback throughout the year. This is not a conference. You will speak to each other, and everyone in the Alberta emergency management system will benefit from our discussions. The Alberta Emergency Management Agency will fund all Summit costs, leaving your organization to cover your transportation and accommodation. The registration deadline is October 15. I would encourage you to register sooner, rather than later, as we quickly became over-subscribed last year. To register, please visit our website: http://www.aema.alberta.ca/ps_consultations_workshops.cfm If you have any questions about registration, please contact Bonnie McLay (bonnie.mclay at gov.ab.ca) by calling 780-644-5685. Any questions regarding program information can be directed to Adam Armitage-Conway (adam.armitage-conway at gov.ab.ca) by calling 780-427-6063. These numbers can also be accessed toll-free by first dialing 310-0000. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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