In Canada, MRSCs are established to enhance maritime SAR co-ordination through improved communications and local knowledge.
MRSCs thus speed up the initiation of appropriate action, and allow a timely response to SAR incidents within their Search and Rescue Sub-Region (SRS).
MRSC Québec is also the sole bilingual Search and Rescue Centre in Canada and one of the two Rescue centres in North America using French language as the main working language (Fort-de-France, in Martinique being the second one).
MRSC Québec is responsible for tasking appropriate maritime SAR resources in order to resolve an incident.
This is most often the dedicated SAR vessels of the Canadian Coast Guard, however, they may also initiate a request for other resources like volunteers from the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, Royal Canadian Air Force primary or secondary SAR aircraft, Royal Canadian Navy warships, Sûreté du Québec small craft, and municipal police small craft as required.