National Defence committee  Well, from the volunteer side of it, we're typically training every month. Our members are out there once or twice a month, going through the certification process and the re-currency process. As I said, we maintain our records on our CASARA management system. It allows us to pro

National Defence committee  As far as the volunteers are concerned, yes, it is a challenge to maintain them. That's just part of volunteerism. Today, generation X and generation Y personnel are not as easily swayed to volunteer. So yes, there are those challenges. But the return that you get from helping yo

National Defence committee  There is the Civil Air Patrol in the U.S. It is significantly different from CASARA, in that it deals with cadets as well. It has three major arms. One is education. One is cadets. One is the surveillance search and rescue side of it. They are a little bit different. They are an

National Defence committee  I can't speak directly to the privatization of the search and rescue services. However, if the privatization did occur, our members are solely and strictly volunteers, so for us to take on a contract and be responsible, the volunteerism would disappear, because we then would have

National Defence committee  No. It's never been an issue with our members. What we've found is that CASARA has generated such a sense of duty, pride, and respect that our members will not bring an aircraft that is poorly maintained. Transport Canada has the responsibility to maintain the regulations for pr

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir. No. I guarantee you that we will not become the Minuteman of the north for CASARA Manitoba. In terms of our certification, we have developed our own training programs in conjunction with the national search and rescue manual. That has been approved and vetted th

National Defence committee  It would be a challenge, but we have members currently in Resolute Bay, Cambridge Bay, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, and Iqaluit, so it would not take any great effort to extend beyond that into the other communities. It would not be easy, because of the size of the Arctic.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, or CASARA, was established in 1986 as a Canada-wide volunteer association dedicated to the promotion of aviation safety and the provision of air search support services to the national search and rescue progra