Manitoba Conservative MP Raquel Dancho is proposing a national framework for “Silver Alerts” aimed at helping communities quickly locate missing seniors suffering from cognitive impairments.Dancho’s private member’s bill, Bill C-263, would require the federal government to establish a national framework supporting a coordinated Silver Alert system across Canada. The legislation passed first reading in March..In an interview with the Western Standard, Dancho said the bill was inspired by the disappearance of Earl Moberg, a Winnipeg-area grandfather and educator living with dementia who wandered away from his home during winter roughly two and a half years ago and was never found. “An elderly gentleman who was a grandfather, a father, a community member, wandered out of his home in the middle of a Winnipeg winter and was never found,” Dancho said. “Despite an extensive search effort, he was never found and is presumed deceased.”Following Moberg’s disappearance, his family launched a petition calling for a national Silver Alert system. More than 7,300 Canadians signed the petition, according to Dancho’s office.Dancho said the family believes a cellphone alert system similar to Amber Alerts may have helped save Moberg’s life.“If a Silver Alert had been in place, similar to an Amber Alert, where perhaps you’d get a notification to your phone if you’re in that geographic area where he went missing, perhaps he could have been found and saved and he’d still be with us today,” she said. Under Bill C-263, the federal government would establish a national framework to support “the rapid and safe recovery of missing vulnerable older persons.”The legislation cites projections from the Alzheimer Society of Canada estimating nearly one million Canadians will be living with dementia by 2030, rising to more than 1.7 million by 2050.The bill also states that if a person living with dementia is not found within 12 hours of going missing, there is a “50 % probability” they will be found dead or suffering severe injury from hypothermia, dehydration or drowning.Dancho said current “Silver Alert” systems in provinces such as Manitoba and Quebec rely largely on police websites and social media notifications rather than direct emergency phone alerts.“So if you’re not paying very close attention to these methods of public notice, then you wouldn’t see this,” she said. In contrast, Dancho said her proposal would move closer toward the Amber Alert model already familiar to Canadians.Asked by the Western Standard about criticism surrounding Amber Alerts — including complaints about wide notification areas and disruptive emergency tones — Dancho argued a Silver Alert system could be much more narrowly targeted because missing seniors are typically travelling on foot rather than by vehicle.“You can geotarget it to just a several-kilometre radius, four kilometres up to maybe 12 kilometres,” she said. “If this is implemented how we envision it, it would be much more geotargeted.”Dancho said the bill was intentionally drafted as a broad framework legislation rather than prescribing technical details such as notification sounds, opt-out systems or delivery methods.“We’ve written the legislation in a way that’s pretty designed as a framework,” she said. The bill requires consultations with provinces, police forces, care providers and organizations responsible for issuing alerts.Dancho said Liberals have indicated support for sending the bill to committee for further study.“We have received indications from the Liberal Party, the governing party, that they will be supporting the bill to committee,” she said. Dancho also pointed to federal public safety data suggesting roughly 60 % of people living with dementia may go missing at some point in their lives.“There’s no reason that we can prevent terrible tragedies that have happened across the country,” she said.
