Emergency Management,
Emergency Social Services,
and Search and Rescue

T= British Columbia has one of the leading emergency response
systems in the world is due in no small measure to the Provincial
Emergency Program Academy established at the JIBC in April 1989
with Sam Meckbach as the first Director, followed by Peter Pershick in 1992.
Rarely called by its full name, it is almost universally known as the PEP
Academy, an acronym that aptly and delightfully conveys the enthusiasm
and dedication of the thousands of volunteers and career professionals who
bring their energy and skills to large and small emergencies anywhere in
the province. In its first year, the PEP Academy delivered seventeen courses
to over 650 students.

The PEP Academy is now under the umbrella of the JIBC’s Emer-
gency Management Division (EMD). The Academy provides classes and
programs in four major areas-—Search and Rescue (SAR), Emergency
Social Services (ESS), Emergency Management and (in late 2008) Emer-
gency Radio Communication. In 2007, the Division delivered 300 programs
to 5,383 students in more than 100 communities throughout B.C. The
Division conducts courses for a wide range of clients not only in British
Columbia but also for federal government, provincial and private organiza-
tions in all parts of Canada. They have also provided training to students
from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and China at the New
Westminster campus, or in these countries.

“B.C’s search and rescue and emergency social services capabili-
ties are the most advanced in Canada,” says the PEP Academy’s Program
Manager, Jeff Cornell. “Other provinces envy us.” Jurisdictions on the other
side of the Rockies see eighty-seven search and rescue societies, run by over
4,700 volunteers and supported by donations, gaming revenues and the
likes of bake sales and other traditional community fundraising methods.
When a hiker gets lost, a snowboarder falls off a cliff or a forest worker
is injured, the local SAR team is called upon. Working with police, para-
medics and a local government’s emergency management coordinator,
they rescue dozens of people every year, sometimes in appalling weather.
“Volunteer SAR teams are strictly land-based,” says Cornell. “Marine search
and rescue is the responsibility of the Coast Guard and the Armed Forces.”

Much of the training the JIBC provides is of the kind necessary for
rescues in the province’s mountainous terrain, such as rope-rescue team
instruction and avalanche response. But it also teaches SAR leaders how “to
safely lead a group of team members through the wilderness and to practise
effective and efficient search techniques.” Some training is provided in the

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