A Word from Our President

Greetings and welcome to all of you,

I'd like to welcome you to the AQBRS website. This site is frequently updated. It is intended for members of the Association but it is also intended to publicize the work of our volunteers.

Board members are proud to see the growth of the AQBRS since our election in October 2013. In the spring of 2019, we agreed to stay in place for a third term to continue the work already undertaken.

Since then, thanks to our hard work, our organization and its member groups have confirmed their position as leaders in search and rescue. It is mainly through a collective effort that we can see such a boom. I would like to highlight the partnership developed with the Canadian Search and Rescue Volunteer Association, the Quebec Ministry of Public Security, Saint-John Ambulance, the various police services and the civil security stakeholders, as we demonstrated during the past year. participating in three major exercises. I would also like to highlight the recent partnership with the Montreal Fire Department in the use of specially trained dogs in search of rubble.

Far from resting on our laurels, board members, regional coordinators and group leaders continue to work to develop members' expertise to provide professional service. We are pleased to participate in the collective effort involving several organizations in civil security that results in the involvement of our members in major disasters such as the 2017 floods, the Gatineau tornadoes in 2018 and the recent floods that affected several regions of Quebec.

We are particularly grateful for the support provided by the National Search and Rescue Secretariat, which has been supporting our efforts for better service delivery for four years. This important support has enabled us to provide our members with personal safety equipment, to provide our regional coordinators with navigation and training and radio equipment.

Guy Lapointe, President