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RCAF to test rapid rescue response times

National Defence has been quietly evaluating the merits of positioning
its helicopters and fixed-wing planes to respond within 30 minutes of an
emergency call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

According to
its own defence acquisition guide, the Harper government was supposed to
issue a call for tenders last year as part of its oft-delayed,
decade-long plan to buy fixed-wing search planes, with a contract award
expected this year.

One federal official, who was not authorized
to speak to the media, said Tuesday the proposal request is still being
developed as the military refines its expectations, and it will be a few
months yet before it's made public.

An around-the-clock half
hour response time is an idea the air force has long dismissed as too
costly and manpower-intensive. But the issue came into sharper focus in
2012 following the death of 14 year-old Burton Winters of Makkovik, N.L.

It took two days for military aircraft to join the search for
Winters, died on the sea ice off the coast of Labrador after he went
missing in January 2012. The air force said at the time that equipment
malfunctions and poor weather delayed its arrival and that nothing they
could have done differently would have saved the boy.

After a
harsh auditor general's report in the spring of 2013, National Defence
began a series of assessments with different squadrons around the
country, including bases in Trenton, Ont., Winnipeg, and Victoria, B.C.

Documents
obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act show
the evaluation will be expanded to Halifax this summer.

As it
stands now, rescue crews at five main bases across the country can
become airborne within 30 minutes of a call only between 8 a.m. and 4
p.m., Monday to Friday. On weekends and holidays, the expected response
time drops to two hours.

Auditor general Michael Ferguson’s
report said the military could do better. Former defence minister Peter
MacKay ordered rescue commanders to alter the hours of operation as
needed.

National Defence spokeswoman Ashley Lemire said two of
the base trials — Trenton and Winnipeg — were deemed successful, while
the one in Victoria is still being evaluated. According to internal data
obtained by CP, the rejigging of schedules in Trenton saw "an improved
response time to 150 SAR incidents."

Aircrews and ground crews were able to cope with the higher demands, Lemire said in an email.

But
an after-action report that looked at the Trenton experiment found
"there was a significant impact on quality of life (QOL) due to working 7
days per week including weekends with the current personnel
establishment numbers."

It remains to be seen whether the
government will order the military to adopt the higher standard once the
Halifax evaluation is completed.

In 2008, the air force
estimated it would need up to $2.6 billion more for aircraft and
infrastructure and $314 million in extra operational funding in order to
adopt the around-the-clock posture.

The evaluation pointed to
data that suggested out of 1,054 rescue missions, only nine were time
sensitive. Of those, a 30-minute response time might have made a
difference in three cases.

Interestingly, when the National
Research Council looked at the issue, it cast doubt on the air force's
evaluation, saying it should not be used a cornerstone for a future
decision because only 119 of the cases were actually studied by military
planners.

The data used "was highly filtered and conclusions
were drawn based on 'witness testimony and anecdotal evidence,'" the
council found.