Interesting Article, in Canada our principal authority for Ground SAR is our provincial police, i.e. in all of Western and Northern Canada the RCMP and for Air SAR the Royal Canadian Airforce. This means they are the ones that assign volunteer SAR teams and decide which assets to use. In some parks, the specialized teams exist and they become the first responders and the RCMP only takes over if they cannot find the individual(s). This means we have a much more unified system and standards that are set at either the provincial or national level. It is also as I have seen first-hand on the Alberta/British Columbia border, they are willing to use whatever resources are available, most practical and inter-provincial borders make no real difference.