Turmoil in elite Vancouver rescue team

Vancouver's elite Urban Search and Rescue Team is being overhauled less than eight weeks away from the 2010 Olympics, CBC News has learned.

The changes come amid allegations from some Urban Search and Rescue Team (U-SAR) members of mismanagement, financial impropriety and a lack of accountability by the team leaders who remain in charge of the task force.

U-SAR is known for its work in a number of emergency situations, most recently following a deadly mudslide in North Vancouver in 2005 and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the same year.

The City of Vancouver — a primary funder of the team — began an internal review of the organization in April, which has so far resulted in at least three highly skilled members being released from their duties.

Documents obtained by CBC News showed the team's chief medical director, Dr. Mike Flesher, of the Trauma Program at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, has been let go, as has 30-year veteran Vancouver firefighter Flynn Lamont, a specialist in training search dogs.

Both had volunteered with U-SAR for more than a decade and have not been accused of any impropriety.

Allegations apparently unfounded

The city's top bureaucrat, city manager Penny Ballem, said that after providing 15 years of service the team needs a new direction. But she denied any wrongdoing took place.

"There were some issues raised around perceptions that things had been misappropriated," Ballem told CBC News.

"I've had an investigation done in the city to look into that and there's no evidence of misappropriation.

"But I do think the team in general has lost its sense of clarity and focus."

Should there be an emergency requiring search and rescue expertise during the Olympics, Ballem said teams from Alberta and Washington state would be called into service.