Ross Peterson,
Former member North Shore Rescue
http://dx.doi.org/10.61618/OSAT9391
This book will be of interest to all those engaged or interested in volunteer search and rescue. Although the
book focusses on one team – North Shore Rescue (NSR) in British Columbia – the issues, stories,
frustrations, and humour described herein will be recognized by those in other areas.
Allen Billy takes the reader on a historic journey of NSR from its early days as a Civil Defense organization
with barely adequate vehicles, equipment not suitable for mountain rescue and rudimentary
communications, up to present time as a technical innovator and leader in Canadian search and rescue.
As a volunteer team, NSR responds to requests for assistance from fire, police, ambulance service and
municipal and provincial governments. Although NSR is an autonomous registered society, it nonetheless
finds itself in the often complex and frustrating world of government and agency bureaucracy. Some of the
narratives in the book show how accommodating to the myriad of bureaucratic requirements has been an
evolution in itself.