No common sense in evicting Search and Rescue
Making the Cowichan Search and Rescue have to find a new location is bogus.
The CVRD have given them notice to vacate the Bings site, in the near future. The CVRD says that they require the space for a regional emergency operations centre for future disasters that may develop in the Cowichan Valley. True, a disaster can happen at any time, but look at the statistics in comparison to how many times the Cowichan Search and Rescue are out doing rescues in a given year to the amount of disasters that have happened in the Cowichan Valley — practically none, except for the Beverly Street flood on Nov. 20, 2009, nine years ago.
There were 35 call outs for the rescue team in 2017. When forest fires ravaged the Interior of B.C., portable emergency operations were set up, as one command centre is only required for giving out instructions of where people would have to go to obtain food and accommodation, once they were registered with the command centre.
Common sense seems to have disappeared. The CVRD seems to forget that all of their employees receive taxpayer funded paycheques, whereas the Cowichan Search and Rescue, who do excellent work, are all volunteers without a paycheque.
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan