Silver alert petition presented in Parliament

Kildonan – St. Paul

Two years ago, the North Kildonan community was shaken by the disappearance of Earl Moberg, a beloved father, grandfather, and educator who suffered from dementia. Despite extensive search efforts, Earl was never found and is presumed deceased.

As Canada’s population ages, seniors will make up a larger share of our society than ever before. With this shift comes the need for initiatives that recognize and respond to age-related challenges, particularly cognitive impairments such as dementia. This makes protecting our seniors an urgent priority.

That is why I was honoured to sponsor the Moberg family’s petition calling for a national silver alert system to help locate missing seniors with cognitive impairments. On Oct. 28, I was pleased to welcome Britt Moberg, Earl’s daughter, to Ottawa to witness the petition’s presentation in the House of Commons. The petition was signed by 7,318 Canadians in every province and territory — a remarkable show of support for this important cause.

I would like to thank Brenda Moberg, Earl’s wife, for her tireless efforts in sharing the petition, as well as everyone who signed or helped circulate it. Your engagement has helped raise national awareness of this critical issue.

Over the past months, my office has worked closely with the Moberg family to study how a silver alert notification system could function effectively in Canada. Currently, while silver alerts exist within the federal government’s national public alerting system (NPAS), they are not being used consistently or effectively to notify the public when a senior goes missing.

To avoid “alert fatigue,” NPAS can geo-target alerts to smaller regions. This allows notifications to reach people in the immediate area where a senior has gone missing — a focused approach that complements existing alert systems, such as amber alerts, which appropriately cover broader areas, since abducted children can be transported hundreds of kilometres. A silver alert, by contrast, would target a much smaller radius where a missing senior is most likely to be found.

By 2030, nearly one million Canadians will be living with Alzheimer’s disease, and almost 60 per cent may go missing at some point. If not found within 12 hours, half may face serious injury or death.

Our seniors and their families deserve a common-sense silver slert program to bring missing loved ones home safely. The government now has 45 days to respond to the petition. I look forward to its response, and to continuing this work with federal and provincial partners to make silver alerts a reality in Canada.

Together, we can keep seniors safe.