CANADA Who Pays If You Ski Out of Bounds in Canada

Search and rescue groups in Alberta, Canada are applauding the passage of legislation providing payment for liability insurance for volunteer search organizations by the provincial government. Not quite a workers comp issue, but closely related nontheless.

The issue was highlighted last May when a woman from Quebec died after she and her husband skied out of bounds at a resort and spent days lost in the rugged mountainous region.

The 51-year old husband filed lawsuits against a local search and rescue group, the RCMP and the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort after his 44-year-old wife froze to death during their 10-day ordeal in February.

The man is suing for negligence, alleging that between February 17 and 21, all three organizations were informed of SOS signals he stamped into the snow in the area about 700 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, but failed to launch a search. The allegations have not been proven in court.

In a statement of defense filed in court, the three organizations say the couple made a “deliberate choice” to ski out of bounds and can't blame others for the tragic consequences. (workersxzcompxzkit)

Until now, search and rescue groups were forced to pay for their own insurance. One estimate for the cost of buying insurance for all of the province's 40 search and rescue groups and 1,500 volunteers is “between $75,000 and $80,000 a year.''

\Author Rebecca Shafer, J.D., Writer, Consultant, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. Contact: [email protected] or 860-553-6604.

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