CALGARY -- Spurred by a high-profile lawsuit, the head of Search and Rescue Alberta will be seeking provincial support Wednesday at a meeting with Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk.

MEETING WITH MINISTER

The two are set to discuss the issue of liability insurance for the province's 40 volunteer search-and-rescue operations and 1,500 members in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Gilles Blackburn against the RCMP, province of B.C., Golden Search and Rescue and the Kicking Horse Resort.

In the suit, Blackburn alleges those groups were negligent in not responding to SOS signals he stamped in the snow after he and his wife, Marie Josee-Fortin, got lost while backcountry skiing near Kicking Horse Resort in February 2008.

Josee-Fortin died before the couple was found.

"We're going to present him with a couple of options and solutions as we see it," said Monica Ahlstrom, president of SAR Alberta.

INSURANCE NEED

"The first thing is to look at getting that insurance for all the teams in Alberta and having it done through SAR Alberta with the support of the provincial government.

"There's actually a number of issues here, there's liability issues for the teams, liability issues for the individual members and there's also disability insurance."

Ahlstrom said they would like to see Alberta adopt the model used in Newfoundland.

"Newfoundland Search and Rescue actually holds the liability policy for the search and rescue organizations, then they have individual disability insurance for every member in their province," she said.

In Alberta, search-and-rescue groups that can afford insurance buy it, while the ones that can't, don't.

SAR Alberta will also be looking for administrative support at Wednesday's meeting, something Ahlstrom said they've been after for more than a decade.

MONEY AND STAFF

"We need money and people," she said.

"SAR Alberta, to function properly, it wouldn't be that much money a year, probably around $200,000 that would give us an office and a person (to run it).

"It's too big of an organization to be run by volunteers anymore, it's overwhelming - we need an administrative infrastructure."

SAR Alberta falls under the purview of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, which is run by Municipal Affairs.