A new dispatch system for search and rescue teams in Nova Scotia is helping round up volunteers more efficiently, according to one volunteer who uses it.
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“What it means for the layperson is we’re going to be on scene a lot faster than we have been before,” said Paul Service, a Halifax Search & Rescue volunteer on Wednesday.
He spoke at an announcement of the system at the Department of Natural Resources’s air service facility in Shubenacadie, N.S.
The program can call multiple volunteers to deliver a computer-voiced message letting them know about missing people and where volunteers need to meet, among other things.
“The faster we can get resources or volunteers on scene, the better chances we have of bringing the missing person home,” said Service.
All volunteer teams in the province are now connected through the system.
“That is a first for us,” said Zach Churchill, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office.
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According to the provincial government, there are more than 1,300 volunteers who respond to about 50 lost person searches annually.
Before the system, teams in the province used a variety of methods to get messages out, including autodialers and volunteers calling other volunteers in a phone tree, said Service.
The system, which can be used on desktop computers and through cellphone apps launched on April 1, can send text messages and emails to volunteers.
Around $39,000 of the projects $69,000 cost came from the the federal government’s Search and Rescue New Initiatives Fund. The Nova Scotia government and volunteers paid for the rest via in-kind funding.
“We want, going into a new camping season, new summer season, new hiking season, to have this technology in place to better improve our ability to respond to emergency situations,” said Churchill.
Service, who worked on the project for eight months, said the system is “unique” in Canada, and other provinces are looking into it.
“It’s been used on one call-out now from the province. The right information on the search is coming right away, and that makes a world of difference when you’re setting up for a search,” he said.
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