Offshore rescue services 'grossly' short: expert

Parliamentarians were told Tuesday that Canada's ability to search the Atlantic area is severely inadequate for emergency calls that happen to come at night.

While military search and rescue crews can usually respond to an emergency within an hour, that depends on a call coming during daylight. At night, two hours is considered permissible.

Paul Clay, president of Seacom International, a St. John's company that specializes in emergency response plans in the offshore oil industry, told the parliamentary defence committee that Canada is falling short.

"The intention of search and rescue times is to save life and the attention of those resources is to save life," Clay said.

"Canada's two-hour response is the longest in the world, as far as I know. It is grossly in my opinion, where it shouldn't be. We should lower those times."

The defence committee has been meeting in Newfoundland and Labrador this week to examine complaints that search response times have been too slow.

Robert Wells, the retired justice who has been leading an inquiry into offshore helicopter safety, also spoke to the committee, and reiterated his call for a dedicated helicopter for the offshore industry to be based in St. John's.

Shawn Skinner, Newfoundland and Labrador's natural resources minister, told MPs that fishing crews deserve to have the same quick emergency response currently afforded to the offshore oil industry, which is served through a private contract with Cougar Helicopters of St. John's.

In an email to CBC News Tuesday, the commanding officer of Gander's 103 Squadron said the military's search-and-rescue response times are, on average, much better than targets of having a helicopter off the ground 30 minutes after receiving a call between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays – and two hours at all other times.

"Average airborne time Monday to Friday is 18 minutes, and the average airborne time during quiet hours is 50 minutes," wrote Maj. Steve Reid.