Rescue Canada Resource Group

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Rescue Canada Resource Group Rescue Canada provides internationally acclaimed training, services and products. Rescue Canada (RC) was founded in 1988 by Jim Lavalley.
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In its first year, Rescue Canada became the Canadian agent for Rescue 3 International’s Swiftwater Rescue Technician (SRT) course developed by founder Jim Segerstrom. Throughout the 90’s Rescue Canada expanded the original SRT program across the country and adapted it to better fit the needs of the different sectors of the swiftwater industry. About Jim and his team

Jim has learned many critical things while focusing the past 4 decades of his professional life solely to working in and learning about the many safety and rescue factors. Aspects that are important for all us who work and play in the moving water and ice environments, whether we are hiking, wading, swimming, operating boats, using ropes or working with helicopters. Jim will share his experience of over 47,860 documented hours operating on over 260 river systems across Canada and around the world along with tens of thousands documented hours of experience in the water, mountain, urban and industrial environment. This includes operating and teaching others; designing and developing content; specialized equipment; and acting internationally as a court-recognized, subject matter expert. Rescue Canada's Master Instructors have an average of over 20 years and 15,000 hrs of documented professional experience. This brings another unmatched source of information and experience that we will put at your fingertips.

Getting in and out of a helicopter safely is its own skill set. Our students train for it on the ground first.Landing zo...
09/18/2026

Getting in and out of a helicopter safely is its own skill set. Our students train for it on the ground first.

Landing zone work looks simple until you are the one standing next to a running rotor. Our Helicopter Training program covers how to approach and work around an aircraft safely, hover exit and entry, toe-ins, and landing zone management, the everyday skills that keep crews safe every time a helicopter is part of the job.

This training is built for the people who actually use helicopters to get work done. Resource management crews, rescue responders, field workers, surveyors, enforcement officers. Knowing where to stand, how to approach, and how to move around the aircraft is not optional when rotors are turning.

Courses are IRIA certified and structured across levels, so crews can build from ground safety fundamentals up to full operational training.

Log jams are one of the most dangerous swiftwater hazards. This week's Level 2 group learned why, and what to do about i...
09/17/2026

Log jams are one of the most dangerous swiftwater hazards. This week's Level 2 group learned why, and what to do about it.

Our Level 2 Swiftwater Rescue course puts students through skills most people never think about until they need them: defensive and aggressive swimming, and pushing over a log jam.

Log jams are one of the deadliest hazards in moving water. Get pinned against one and the current does the rest. Students spent this session learning how to read the water above a jam, commit to an aggressive swim, and get their body up and over the debris instead of getting pulled under it.

This is the kind of training that separates someone who's comfortable in a pool from someone who can actually work a river. No shortcuts on this one. You put in the reps in a controlled environment so your body knows what to do when it counts.

Level 2 Swiftwater Rescue runs regularly out of our Chilliwack base. Link in bio for course dates.

When we said we'd sweep you off your feet, this isn't quite what we had in mind.Good thing our instructors are never far...
09/11/2026

When we said we'd sweep you off your feet, this isn't quite what we had in mind.

Good thing our instructors are never far. In swiftwater training, this is the whole point. Every scenario is performance based and runs in a controlled environment, so you get flipped, dunked, and turned around on purpose, with someone right there to get you back on your feet fast.

Better to find your limits here than have the river show you who's boss.

When you're hours from help, first aid changes.This is Red Cross Wilderness and Remote First Aid, a hands-on 3 day cours...
09/08/2026

When you're hours from help, first aid changes.

This is Red Cross Wilderness and Remote First Aid, a hands-on 3 day course for people who spend real time outdoors. You'll work through shock, CPR, wound care, splinting and evacuation, plus how to manage hypothermia and cold injuries when the ambulance isn't coming any time soon. Less lecture, more practice, because that's what actually sticks when you need it.

Two sessions this fall in Chilliwack. Sept 28-30 or Oct 1-3. $295 per person and seats are limited.

Register now - Contact us by email (mailto:[email protected]) or call the office (1-800-663-8931) and book your spot today.

This is what a good instructor does.The goal is to come to your Swiftwater certification course and walk out with real c...
09/03/2026

This is what a good instructor does.

The goal is to come to your Swiftwater certification course and walk out with real confidence in the water, not just a card in your wallet. That's the difference Emily, and our other instructors bring to every session. Knowledge means nothing if you can't hand it off clearly, and that's exactly what her students say she does.

Thanks for the kind words, Justin. This is why we teach.

Swiftwater doesn't give you time to think.One second you're upright, the next you're swallowed by the power of the movin...
09/02/2026

Swiftwater doesn't give you time to think.

One second you're upright, the next you're swallowed by the power of the moving water. No warning, no pause to decide what happens next. That gap between a rough ride and a real problem gets closed by training, not instinct. Your body needs to already know the moves before the river takes the choice away from you.

This is what swiftwater rescue training prepares you for. Guides, paddlers, first responders, anyone who spends time on moving water.

Rescue Canada runs swiftwater rescue courses built for real conditions, not just a classroom. Get trained before the water asks the question for you.

Five stars. One student. Decades of river experience behind every lesson.Swiftwater Rescue Technician is not an easy cou...
08/28/2026

Five stars. One student. Decades of river experience behind every lesson.

Swiftwater Rescue Technician is not an easy course, and it's not supposed to be. Moving water doesn't give second chances, so the training has to be hard enough to build real judgment before it's ever tested on a live river.

James put in the work, and he's not shy about crediting the instruction that got him there. That kind of feedback means everything to us, because it tells us the course is doing what it's supposed to do: turning experience into something a student can actually use.

Thank you for the kind words, James. Proud to have you as a Rescue Canada grad.

08/28/2026

Gravity doesn't care about your footing. That's exactly why we train for it.

Slopes and uneven ground change everything about a rescue. What works on flat ground and vertical rock does not automatically work on a loose, unpredictable embankment, and that gap is where crews get hurt if they haven't trained for it specifically.

We ran a local Fire Rescue crew through embankment rescue fundamentals: building anchors on inconsistent terrain, managing rope systems on a slope instead of a cliff face, and moving a subject up an incline without turning the rescue into a second patient.

The goal isn't just getting the subject out. It's getting them out safely, efficiently, and without the rescuer sliding, slipping, or getting pulled off balance halfway through the extraction. That means constant attention to footing, load direction, and communication between every person on the line.

Every drill was built to put that under real conditions, not just a classroom. Because when the ground under your boots is the variable, the only way to trust your system is to have already tested it.

This is what Rescue Canada training is about. Real terrain. Real pressure. Real preparedness.

One device. Lowering to raising, no rebuild, no swapped hardware, no wasted seconds.That's the CMC MPD in a firefighter'...
08/27/2026

One device. Lowering to raising, no rebuild, no swapped hardware, no wasted seconds.

That's the CMC MPD in a firefighter's control during our Confined Space Rescue course.

In a confined space, the system you rig for lowering a technician down is rarely the system you need to bring them back up. Normally that means breaking down the rig and building a new one, and every minute spent doing that is a minute your patient doesn't have.

The MPD skips that step. It's a descent control device and a raising pulley in the same unit, so the team can convert from lowering to hauling without touching the hardware. That's the difference between a crew fumbling with carabiners under pressure and a crew that just keeps working.

Recently we put a local Fire Rescue team through it, hands-on: rigging it, loading it, running mainline and belay together, and building the muscle memory that makes it second nature on a real call. Because knowing the gear on paper and being able to run it in a live rescue are two very different skill sets, and only one of them saves a life.

That's what Rescue Canada training is built around. Real equipment. Real scenarios. Real competence when it counts.

Would you know what to do if someone went through the ice?Daniela completed our Ice Safety Rescue course, and her review...
08/20/2026

Would you know what to do if someone went through the ice?

Daniela completed our Ice Safety Rescue course, and her review says it best. Real hazard recognition. Real self-rescue skills. Real team-based extrication practice, not just theory.

"I walked away feeling far more prepared and capable in ice-rescue situations." Daniela Wiunig

Winter is coming, and will be here before you know it. Time to start thinking about our Ice Safety Rescue course. Visit rescuecanada.ca and chat with our office staff.

Address

8364 Young Road South
Chilliwack, BC
V2P4N9

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 3pm
Tuesday 8am - 3pm
Wednesday 8am - 3pm
Thursday 8am - 3pm
Friday 8am - 3pm

Telephone

+18006638931

Website

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