"These search and rescue calls are expensive.  In Canada, dispatching a C-130 Hercules plane to search for a lost kayaker cost between $8,000 and $10,000 per hour; a Cormorant helicopter, $6,000 to $8,000 per hour; and a 52-foot coast guard lifeboat, $500 per day.  The most onerous of the user-pay programs would require the victim to pay the entire cost, which is now covered by taxpayers."

Check out the Who pays to bail out kayakers? article online for FREE in the Early Summer 2009 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine.