For 55 years, the government used rescue dogs in the Canadian Rocky Mountains who were trained to trace “everything”, Ward said, from a small paper clip to shell casings to a human body.
After avalanches, a common winter hazard in the area, they were called upon to search for trapped hikers or skiers underneath 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, they helped find children who got lost, often after wandering away from their parents’ campsites.
“We lost a huge public safety and staff safety resource,” he said.
Other countries still rely on canines, often called “avalanche dogs”, for mountain search and rescue, including Italy, external.
The last dog in Parks Canada’s programme, a German Shephard named Leroy, was retired in August.
For the seven years that he was 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 was trained and ready for duty before Parks Canada gave notice last week that the programme would be eliminated as part of recent C$145m ($104m; £78m) budget cuts to Parks Canada, local newspaper Rocky Mountain Outlook reported.
Along with his petition, 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 CEO.
As for Ward, he hopes that the programme will soon be restored.
He recalled a quote that was often uttered by an 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.”
