Whitehorse table-top exercise brings Arctic SAR experts together

Specialists from the eight Arctic Council member states, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States, arrived in Whitehorse, Yukon last week for a two-day table top exercise on international search and rescue.

The gathering, held Oct. 5 and 6 — a day when many parts of Canada’s North saw their telecommunications with the outside world cut off, marked the first time that those responsible for search and rescue in these Arctic nations sat down to discuss how they could work together, by air and sea, on search and rescue operations in the Arctic.

The meeting is a follow-up to an international search and rescue deal agreed to last May by the Arctic Council members.

Canada’s federal health minister and Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq and foreign ministers from the other Arctic countries signed the agreement on search and rescue in the Arctic during their meeting May 12 in Nuuk, Greenland.

It was the Arctic Council’s first binding agreement, creating a co-ordinated emergency response scheme for the Arctic ocean and airspace. The agreement also divided the Arctic into specific search and rescue areas, with each Arctic state being responsible for a specific territory.

“Canada’s signing of the Arctic SAR Agreement and hosting this first international table top exercise, are tangible demonstrations of our government’s commitment to Arctic sovereignty and to the international SAR community,” Peter MacKay, the minister of national defence and federal minister responsible for search and rescue, said in an Oct. 5 news release.

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our government have made the issues facing Canada’s Arctic a priority like never before,” said John Baird, the minister of foreign affairs, in the same release. “We will continue to exercise our sovereignty over Canada’s Arctic while working with our partners in the Arctic Council to address emerging issues in the North.”

Canada Command is the Canadian Forces headquarters responsible for the conduct and co-ordination of air and sea search and rescue operations within Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Coast Guard and other search and rescue organizations.

The table top exercise focussed on air and marine incidents that could potentially occur in the Arctic which would require international co-operation and resources, the news release said.