Parks Canada ends its canine search and rescue program in the Rocky Mountains

More than 5,000 sign petition to restore Banff’s sole dog handler role

Parks Canada is ending its canine search and rescue program at Banff National Park this month, eliminating the sole dog handler position in one of the most rugged parts of Canada. The agency confirmed the decision to the BBC, calling it a “difficult decision,” and said it is part of an effort to modernize its law enforcement branch. More than 5,000 people have signed a petition since Tuesday to restore the role.

The elimination comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government makes broad funding cuts to Canada’s public service. Parks Canada announced last week that hundreds of its employees will soon be laid off. The program is being eliminated as part of recent budget cuts of C$145 million ($104 million; £78 million) to the agency, according to the Rocky Mountain Outlook, a local newspaper.

Parks Canada said “search and rescue operations will continue to be delivered” through other means. The BBC has asked the agency how much the canine program cost to administer.

Scott Ward spent 17 years as a dog handler in the wilderness of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, work he described as gratifying. Now 73 and retired, he said he was shocked to hear recently that Parks Canada will end the program entirely. He recalled the relief on parents’ faces when a search and rescue dog he was working with found their children safe in the park’s vast, heavily wooded terrain, and another search in which his canine partner led him up a steep mountainside for two hours to reach a man with a broken leg who was close to dying from hypothermia.

For 55 years, the government used rescue dogs in the Canadian Rockies trained to trace what Ward called “everything,” from a small paper clip to shell casings to a human body. After avalanches, a common winter hazard in the area, handlers called on the dogs to search for hikers or skiers trapped beneath heavy mounds of snow.

“It saves probers hours and hours of standing shoulder to shoulder and poking in the snow, and also exposing themselves to secondary avalanche hazards,” Ward said.

In the summer, the dogs helped find children who got lost, often after wandering away from their parents’ campsites. “We lost a huge public safety and staff safety resource,” Ward said.

The program’s last dog, a German shepherd named Leroy, retired in August. In seven years on the job, Leroy helped track 156 people, find 57 who were lost in the wilderness and solve two murders in Banff. A new canine had already been trained and was ready for duty before Parks Canada gave notice last week, the Rocky Mountain Outlook reported.

William Stevenson, the Conservative member of Parliament for the Banff area, started the petition. He said he welcomes tighter government spending but that the cut could harm public safety. “How could they possibly make such a bad choice in where to cut?” he said.

Stevenson also raised the issue in Canada’s parliament during a late sitting on Thursday. In response, Ryan Turnball, a Liberal MP and the parliamentary secretary for finance, said the government is focused on reducing Canada’s deficit and “ensuring public funds support growth, resilience and the well-being of Canadians.”

Stevenson said he will continue to push on the issue and has asked for a sit-down meeting with Parks Canada’s chief executive. Other countries still rely on dogs, often called “avalanche dogs,” for mountain search and rescue, including Italy.

Ward said he hopes the program will soon be restored. He recalled a line often uttered by the old park warden who trained him: “You can make an armpit smell like a lilac bush and you can put a man on the moon, but nothing can replace the nose of the avalanche dog.”