Saskatoon Search and Rescue team logged record number of hours in 2022

Saskatoon Search and Rescue volunteers are busier than ever before.

According to a letter presented at Saskatoon’s most recent Board of Police Commissioners meeting, the team’s 48 active members logged 1,850 search hours over 17 different searches in 2022 – a record number of hours for the group by a large margin.

According to the group’s website, the year that came closest to 2022 was 2018, when 788 hours were logged.Carla Eager, the group’s communications director, said SSAR was called out 17 times last year, with most of the calls occurring during the summer.

“We were up at Red Earth First Nation (searching for a missing boy) for a good chunk of time, (and) we were a part of the search here in Saskatoon at Chief Whitecap Park with Dawn Walker,” she said.

The team also helped search for a missing mushroom picker near Smeaton, Eager added, and members travelled to Granite Lake Campground to help find a missing camper.

Eager said SSAR is deployed only after a request from the RCMP or Saskatoon police.

The team also sticks exclusively to ground searches, although members can work near rivers or lakes as well.Some of the searches in 2022 overlapped with one another.

In other cases, Eager explained, they were made aware a day or so in advance.

SSAR hasn’t had any calls so far this year, although Eager said team members are ready to go at a moment’s notice.”We could be called out at any time, but it’s been a quiet start to 2023,” she said.