Winters' family wants more Labrador search and rescue improvement

Some people – pleased with the decision to return a third chopper to the military airbase in Happy Valley-Goose Bay – say more improvements to search and rescue in Labrador are needed.

The family of Burton Winters is said to be happy with the decision to station another Griffon helicopter at CFB Goose Bay.

Winters, 14, was found dead on the sea ice outside his home community of Makkovik on Feb. 1. He was reported missing on Jan. 29.

The area’s Liberal MHA, Randy Edmunds, said he's spoken with family members, and they agree moving the Griffon helicopter to Labrador a step in the right direction.  Edmunds also took part in the search for Winters.

"We want to see a full-fledged search and rescue squadron at Goose Bay that has the capability. It is a Canadian Forces base, it is very central to Labrador and to the Northern Peninsula, you know, an obvious choice," he said.

DND has stationed primary search and rescue assets – three Cormorant helicopters – in Gander, on the island of Newfoundland. The Griffon helicopters are classified a "secondary asset" by the Canadian military.

There have been questions about search and rescue services in Labrador since Winters died about 10 weeks ago.

Military search and rescue crews arrived at the scene of the search 36 hours after it began. They said they were hampered by equipment, weather and protocol problems.

A CBC Fifth Estate program questioned if weather and protocol problems were real.