Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That funding hasn't been updated for a long time. Since then, prices have gone up across the globe on everything. It helps a lot, but I think it could use an increase. As for the other option, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable on a random snowmobile or a random boat. We have to t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It would be much like this one right here, I imagine. It would be a whole bunch of us sitting around a big table and sharing our ideas and thoughts about ways to reduce times and to reduce actual searches and rescues. Like I said earlier, many heads equal many ideas, and if we co

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It is our own responsibility because that's where we are. To get southern help is hours and sometimes days away, as I was saying.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There is very little help, but we are very lucky in our community that we have a very small group of highly dedicated individuals who have come to learn on their own how to deal with this, but nobody should have to do that. Knowing these people who we are searching for and who we

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It will help a lot, especially if we have this community public safety officer. That would be the one person who would be coordinating all of these separate entities. We don't have that right now. It's just like chaos. If we do have a huge rescue operation, it will be chaotic. Ha

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I was a part of search and rescue in Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk. I lived in both communities. They're very similar. I imagine all other communities are just the same in the passion that these are our people and we need to save our people, no questions asked. We do the job with v

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm guessing that about 90% of the equipment has been purchased through fundraising by local efforts of literally holding bingos and local fundraising events like that. We do get donations a couple of times a year from the local hamlet and community members through radio talk sho

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's mainly lack of funding, I believe. We have been doing this on our own, and I believe many other communities are the same way. We saw a problem. We came up with solutions on our own. We tackled this on our own because we are so far up north. It took me three days to get here

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We get the job done with the very little resources we have. If we do have help, we can do a lot better. We can cut down the times. We can actually cut down searches, rescues and things like that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  They've been identified, but I don't know about requested. Yes, we have come up with a few things that would really benefit the searches. As I was mentioning, dry suits to be wearing right now and a hovercraft would be great—one that's capable of holding a stretcher and a few re

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We get the job done one way or another. We don't have the tools, but all we think about is, “Let's go and find this person.” We're not worried about what machine we're using or what gear we're using. All we're worried about is, “Let's get there, let's get there now and let's fi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As Canadian Rangers, we're on the ground. We live here. We are from here. We know the land. We know the people. We know the history, and that's priceless in any situation. If you ask me to search here, I can be of great help, but I'm not from here. I don't know the land. I don't

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If we don't get the help, it will mean loss of life. We're doing our best right now. We do save lives. We have been doing so for a number of years, but not to have any help would be kind of disastrous in my eyes. To lose one life is too much. If all it takes is a few dollars, a l

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, a round table would benefit us a lot, because more heads equal more solutions. The diversity of people getting together and coming up with ideas just generates a lot more progress, I guess. I hope that's what you're looking for. I think more heads equal better solutions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'd like to see the coast guard, GSAR ,and federal and territorial representatives all get together, sit down and hash out solutions. As I said earlier, the more heads that get together on this, the better results we may get for the people we're actually looking for, the people w