As promised, Quebec is launching three SILVER Alert pilot projects aimed at finding people with a major neurocognitive disorder who are missing and whose lives are in imminent danger.
The Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, made the announcement Tuesday in Joliette, one of the three MRCs where the pilot projects will take place, the other two being Vallée-de-l’Or, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and Drummond, in Centre-du-Québec.
“It takes a lot of audacity to set up such a process to save the lives of our seniors. After all that we have experienced, it seems to me that we are now saying: seniors are important in our society and we will take care of them. If we can save the life of a senior, it’s worth it,” said Blais at a press conference.
The alerts will be issued only on cell phones — not on radio or television — in a very localized geographic area, where the person is reported missing. These alerts are aimed specifically at seniors with Alzheimer’s disease who leave their homes and become lost.
“I can well understand what family, caregivers and family members are going through when they learn that someone they love and care for is losing their cognitive abilities,” said the minister.
At the same time, she was reassuring about the frequency of these intrusions into people’s cell phones.
“The number of SILVER alerts will be small. To be launched, the alert will have to meet specific criteria, including the requirement that the disappearance is an imminent risk to the life of that person. They will be limited as much as possible to the area where the public can be advantageously involved.”
The three pilot projects will be implemented as of Sept. 5 and continue until Sept. 5, 2023, after which they will be analyzed to assess whether the concept can be expanded throughout the province.
“Will the SILVER Alert really make a difference? Will it save lives? We’ll see in a year,” said Melissa Plamondon, director general of police affairs at the Department of Public Safety.
“We’ll evaluate these impacts and the other impacts it could have, particularly on the population, and we’ll weigh the advantages and disadvantages, and then we’ll see if it’s relevant to extend [the program to the province],” she said.
A CANADIAN FIRST
This is a first in Canada; two U.S. states have implemented a similar system: California and Arizona.
“I was told that the other Canadian provinces are going to look at us very closely and evaluate the work we are doing,” Blais said.
The acronym SILVER was coined to stand for the Information System for Locating Vulnerable Lost and Found.
It is an electoral promise made by the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) during the 2018 campaign, and Minister Blais was proud to make the announcement at the beginning of the next campaign for the Oct. 3 election.
According to the Sûreté du Québec, there are an average of 650 potential disappearances of people over 70 years of age in Quebec each year, and “their chances of being found depend on how quickly the disappearance is noticed and reported to the police,” the minister said.
It is the Sûreté du Québec that will assess the seriousness of the situation and the need to trigger an alert if its initial investigation does not lead to the rapid recovery of a missing person.
Alerts of this type, called “intrusive alerts,” can be triggered for different reasons and can be localized or large-scale.
Since 2015, eight localized regional alerts have been triggered, including five AMBER Alerts, one Dangerous Animal Alert (on May 1 for a polar bear in Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine in the Gaspé Peninsula), one Dam Overflow Alert and one Test Alert in Montreal.
Across Quebec, there have been 19 since 2015, including 10 test alerts, three COVID-19 curfew alerts and seven AMBER alerts.
