Having been a long-time member of BC SAR, I get this question a lot. It is an interesting question/debate as to who should pay for the rescue. The only thing I can say is we pay for people doing dumb things all the time, look at the chain smoker getting a lung transplant or the person who is in a high-speed collision due to excessive speed. Also making persons pay for rescue usually delays rescue and this puts our great rescue system in BC in more danger as persons usually wait until the last possible minute which mean a much more complicated rescue. Anyway, enough of my soap box here is a great link on just this topic;
https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/who-pays-for-search-and-rescue-costs-bc-6743525
