Hamilton Mountain MPP Monique Taylor calls to create alert for vulnerable persons

Hamilton Mountain NDP MPP Monique Taylor is pushing to create a provincial alert for missing vulnerable persons.

Taylor introduced Bill-74, also known as the Missing Persons Amendment Act, in 2023 to update the Missing Persons Act to create a missing persons alert system for vulnerable persons similar to ones used in an Amber alert.

The new alert system would be used to help vulnerable people like children with autism or seniors with dementia.

The bill has been stalled at the committee stage in the legislature for over a year.

WATCH MORE: U.S. election ‘consequential’ to Ontario’s economy: Premier Doug Ford

Taylor’s renewed push follows after a family from Havelock-Belmont-Methuen, Ont. found a lost loved one with autism, who was missing for over two weeks in October.

The Missing Persons Act was introduced in 2018, defining what a vulnerable person was, and how an alert can be issued to search for a missing person who was at risk.

The act outlined the process where Ontario Provincial Police is able to issue a vulnerable persons alert in accordance with a request by an officer with the requisite credentials.

An Amber alert is issued when an authorized member of law enforcement is looking for a person under 18 years old that police reasonably believe has been abducted and is in imminent danger.

With files from the Canadian Press.