Older and Wiser - I think the company took advantage (and the p*ss) offering such low pay rates because they knew that the mil guys had little alternative since SAR was folding within the mil and saw the job as a vocation rather than just employment.
It doesn't say much for the value they place on well trained and experienced SAR rearcrew who are essential to the success of the service especially when compared to the pop-star wages paid to the front-enders.
I have yet to be convinced that taking ambulance crews and turning them into SAR rearcrew is viable or cost effective - ISTR that CHC tried it and it didn't work - paramedic skills are one thing but delivering them on the side of a mountain or on a pitching trawler in the dark is something completely different and the success of the military SAR rearcrewman is due to their robustness and ethos. Can those qualities be identified during a selection process? Yes, of course, but it will always be easier (and cheaper) to teach a competent helicopter crewman paramedic skills in a classroom than it will be to create a competence in operating a helicopter and being a critical part of the crew whcih can only really be done in the air.
It all comes down to the new SAR service being built down to a price rather than up to a standard.