Hon. Pamela Wallin: Honourable senators, many of us here have lived with the fear of losing a much-loved mother or father or mentor.

I remember many years ago my grandmother would leave our home, suitcase in hand, on a biting cold Saskatchewan winter day in search of a memory and a life long past. Her behaviour, known as “wandering,” is common amongst those suffering from dementia. Our family was in a constant state of panic — mom and dad frantically leaving work or counting on the kindness of strangers and friends to bring her back home safely.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case for other families. There are too many stories of folks with dementia wandering and never coming home. If a person is not found within the first 12 hours, they face a 50% chance of injury or death. About six in ten people with dementia will become wanderers.

A brutal, indiscriminate medical condition that knows no boundaries, dementia — or Alzheimer’s — affects more than 700,000 Canadians and their families, and those numbers are expected to double in the next 15 years. And it knows no boundaries — everyone from Ronald Reagan to Robin Williams to Rosa Parks — it robs them of a future.

Coping with this means often frustrating situations, and it touches us all in some way or another. But on May 31, 2018 — and believe me, it was late at night — we unanimously passed a motion here in the Senate asking the government to work with the provinces and territories to institute a national framework on silver alert, and I thank Senator Plett for being the co-sponsor.

A silver alert, much like the successful Amber Alert system that is used to locate abducted children, helps find people with major neurocognitive disorders who have gone missing or who are in imminent danger. Given the similarity of the systems, they could be easily integrated, making silver alert a cost-effective strategy to find our loved ones. Statistics from cities and states from our southern neighbour show that silver alert has been a very effective strategy.

So I was happy to see yesterday that the Quebec government has announced that it is launching three silver alert pilot projects in the municipalities of Joliette, Val-d’Or and Drummond. A silver alert strategy in these towns is a great start, and we’ve seen Alberta and Manitoba adopt legislation to implement the system. But a federal network would help each of the provincial and territorial systems communicate and work together. My hope is that the government sees the success of these projects and takes the lead, as we ask them to do.