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New partnership to enhance search and rescue services

Parkland Search and Rescue sees agreement as positive
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Parkland Search & Rescue Parkland Search and Rescue - Saskatchewan on recent training exercise. (File Photo)
YORKTON - The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) and Search and Rescue Saskatchewan Association of Volunteers (SARSAV) have partnered to enhance search and rescue services across Saskatchewan.

The SPSA will provide funding to SARSAV up to a maximum of $40,000 over the next two years.

"This funding will assist SARSAV to purchase insurance coverage to insure its members from the effect of injury or claims of liability," Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell said in a recent release.

Dustin Brears, with the local of Parkland Search and Rescue group said the announcement is a positive one.

“This partnership will allow our local search teams to enhance training and be better prepared to respond to searches in the Yorkton area and the Province as whole,” he told Yorkton This Week. “We are very excited about this agreement.

“Having a true partnership with the Province will help us continue to provide this critical service going forward.”

This partnership between the SPSA and SARSAV will also support training to further build Ground Search and Rescue capacity and other support across Saskatchewan.

"The Memorandum of Agreement with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency is a commitment to ongoing support that will offer a level of sustainability that SARSAV has not had previously," SARSAV President Bobbi Buchanan said in the release. "This is an incredible milestone representing a phenomenal undertaking and relationship building that has taken 25 years to realize. We couldn't be happier to see the hard work put in by many dedicated people come to fruition. This is a moment worthy of celebration!"

The announcement came just as Saskatchewan was about to celebrate Search and Rescue Week Sept. 25 to Oct. 1.