National Silver Alert System
Petitioners ask the Government to establish a National Silver Alert System sending geographically targeted mobile and media notices for missing vulnerable adults. The government responds that Alert Ready could incorporate Silver Alerts.
Why we would sign this petition
- Would speed public notification and mobilize local communities to locate missing vulnerable adults, likely reducing harm and deaths from delayed searches.
- Builds on existing national alert frameworks and local law‑enforcement partnerships, enabling faster deployment without creating wholly new distribution systems.
- Geographically targeted mobile alerts match evidence that missing older adults are often close to their last known location, improving chances of rapid recovery.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- May risk privacy violations or public misidentification if activation criteria or data safeguards are unclear, potentially harming individuals’ dignity and safety.
- Requires complex federal–provincial–territorial coordination and clear activation rules; jurisdictional disagreements could delay or limit use.
- Frequent or overly broad alerts could cause public fatigue and burden broadcasters and mobile networks, reducing attention to truly urgent cases.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the Government of Canada Whereas: According to the Alzheimer Society, nearly 1 million people in Canada will be living with dementia by 2030 and this will increase to more than 1.7 million by 2050; According to Public Safety Canada, 60% of people living with dementia will go missing at some point. If a person with Alzheimer's disease is not found within 12 hours of being lost, there is a 50% chance that they will be found injured or dead from hypothermia, dehydration, or drowning. This makes any search an emergency; Silver Alert is a system that will provide notification when a vulnerable adult with dementia or other cognitive impairment goes missing so they can be brought home safely; According to researchers from the University of Waterloo, Faculty of Health, older adults who get lost and go missing are usually within four to 12 kilometres of their last known location. Silver Alerts to mobile devices could be geographically targeted to a local area; and Amber Alerts exist for vulnerable children. Many adults living with dementia are similarly vulnerable, but they are not yet protected by a similar system. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to coordinate with provincial authorities and local law enforcement to develop a National Silver Alert System, which will geographically target mobile devices and broadcast to media information concerning missing vulnerable adults. Silver Alerts will save lives.
Government response
Response by the Minister of Public Safety Signed by Jacques Ramsay, Parliamentary Secretary The National Public Alerting System (NPAS), also known as Alert Ready, is a collaborative federal, provincial, and territorial system that delivers critical, potentially life-saving alerts to Canadians via radio, television, and mobile devices. It is used to notify the public of imminent or unfolding emergencies such as floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and other disasters. The system also supports Amber Alerts and Police-Initiated Public Safety Alerts (PIPSAs)—urgent messages issued by law enforcement agencies to help protect public safety. The Silver Alert initiative could enable the immediate broadcast of alerts in cases where a missing person is uncontactable and potentially in danger, has a confirmed or evident diagnosis of major neurocognitive disorder (or symptoms in those 60+), is at imminent risk to life, and for whom sufficient identifying details are available for public dissemination to aid in a rapid recovery. Similar to the Amber Alert program—a voluntary partnership between provincial law enforcement and community stakeholders to help locate missing children—Silver Alerts could allow authorities to disseminate key details such as the individual’s name, physical description, photograph, and vehicle information directly to mobile devices within a geographically targeted area. NPAS and the Broadcast Immediate Events List are governed by the Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management, a body composed of representatives from federal, provincial, and territorial emergency management organizations. While the RCMP may issue PIPSAs in jurisdictions where it serves as the police of jurisdiction, it is not the designated authority for initiating alerts within NPAS.