Search and Rescue crews including here in Kamloops are eagerly awaiting stable long term funding from the government.

The ask is for $6-million dollars a year province-wide, but there wasn’t any mention in the 2019 budget.

Jenn Stahn with Kamloops Search and Rescue says they’ve been told there’s no cause for concern just yet.

“And we’re looking for that under an alternative support model, so essentially that would go through our B.C. Search and Rescue Association board at the provincial level and then that would go and be dispersed among the 80 teams in the province depending on their size and needs,” she said.

“It’ll help us with our operating costs, any large capital purchases that we need to make, as well as any training that we need to get done.”

As it stands, $15-million in government funding runs out on March 31.

If there is funding announced, the concern from smaller teams is that the bigger and busier ones will get most of it.

“Offering more regional training which would help reduce some of those costs for those smaller teams,” said Stahn, noting that could be a potential solution.

“So the more specific things like rope rescue or swift water, we’d be able to host that training, for example, in Kamloops and have some of those smaller teams come in instead of having to go down to the Lower Mainland.”

In KSAR’s case, Stahn says the government funding won’t alleviate all of their needs, but it’ll help cover the basics.