National Search and Rescue Program

A Royal Canadian Air Force CH-149 Cormorant SAR helicopter hoists a man from a Canadian Coast Guard vessel.

A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-115 Buffalo fixed wing SAR aircraft from 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron. All Buffalo aircraft in the RCAF are based at CFB Comox and are tasked exclusively by JRCC Victoria.

A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CH-146 Griffon helicopter in the SAR paint scheme. From their acquisition by the RCAF in 1995 until 2005, the only Griffons used for SAR were in "combat support squadrons" at major RCAF bases to provide SAR support in the event of the loss of another RCAF aircraft. Combat support squadrons flying the Griffon are located at CFB Cold Lake, CFB Bagotville and CFB Goose Bay. In 2005 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron at CFB Trenton re-equipped with the Griffon to replace its fleet of CH-149 Cormorants as a primary SAR helicopter for central Canada.

The National Search and Rescue Program (NSP) is the name given by the Government of Canada to the collective search and rescue (SAR) activities in Canada.^[1] Until 2015, the NSP was administered by the National Search and Rescue Secretariat (NSS).^[2]

Although the NSP is neither defined nor operated as a formal program of the Government of Canada,^[3] the primary goal of the NSP is understood to be saving lives at risk by providing response and prevention services throughout Canada's Search and Rescue Region of Responsibility (SRR). This area includes all of Canada's land mass as well as areas of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans as designated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). By this definition, the NSP encompasses federal departments, provincial and territorial governments, municipalities, non-profit organizations, and volunteers working together to provide search and rescue in Canada.^[1]