A very respected member of the Search and Rescue community is throwing his support behind keeping the Kitsilano Coast Guard base open.
Tim Jones with North Shore Search and Rescue, and an Order of BC recipient, says he doesn’t want to wade into the politics between paid coast guard and volunteer auxillary.
Jones says instead he has a simple message about the best practice when it comes to safety for the area he is in charge of, when people need rescuing.
“We have had a history of working with them as well as the auxillary out of Deep Cove and Horseshoe Bay as well as the Hovercraft Base and we believe that the whole combination of the Hovercraft Base, the Kits Base, the Auxillary base lifeboats there is a matrix of a best practice that is a minimum best practice.”
He says the groups work best together as they are now.
“Our observations are that the present system the way it is set up 24/7 365 days a year that matrix between the full time staff, coast guard bases, and the auxillary volunteers we believe is a minimum best practice for this area not only for marine search and rescue but to support ground search and rescue operations.”
He says the Kits coast guard staff, auxillary, and his members have a long history and working together have affected rescues working together, some of them pretty dangerous.
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