e-4767 (Public safety)

The AMBER Alert program is a voluntary cooperative plan between provincial law enforcement agencies and various partners who work together to increase collaboration in an effort to safely recover missing children. AMBER Alerts may be activated only by the police and are intended only for the most serious, time critical abduction cases.

AMBER Alert programs are in effect in all 10 provinces in Canada. Each province has agreements with various departments, agencies, and other entities for their AMBER Alert programs. Each province sets and uses its own criteria to activate an AMBER Alert. Criteria for issuing an AMBER Alert may differ from province to province; however, the basic requirements are strict:

• • The child is under 18 years of age;
  • The child has been abducted;
  • There is imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death;
  • Law enforcement has sufficient information to make a search for the child possible, such as descriptions of the child, abductor, accomplices or the suspect's vehicle; AND,
  • The alert is issued in a time frame that would provide reasonable expectation of return or apprehension.

As the criteria for issuing an AMBER Alert are strict and intended only for the most serious, time critical abduction cases, the number of AMBER Alerts issued annually is low. This ensures that the public response is better because they understand that alerts are issued only after serious consideration for the most vulnerable ages.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police does not govern or have a mandate over the provinces when it comes to setting or amending criteria for AMBER Alerts. These conditions have been set by Provincial governments. There is no Federal body governing Amber Alerts.

Removing the condition of the victim being under 18 would not address the other Amber Alert conditions that must be met, specifically, that there are reasonable grounds to believe the victim has been abducted.

In cases that do not meet the Amber Alert threshold, police have other tools and resources at their disposal to provide immediate messaging to the community, such as targeted social and traditional broadcast media campaigns. These actions are taken with consideration to applicable privacy laws, when appropriate.

The National Public Alerting System (NPAS), publicly branded as “Alert Ready”, is a multi-channel Federal/Provincial/Territorial initiative that provides emergency management organizations throughout Canada the ability to rapidly warn the public of imminent or unfolding threats to life by immediately broadcasting on television, radio and wireless devices.

Members of the public cannot opt out from receiving NPAS alerts. Given that Amber Alerts make use of the NPAS, its use needs to be tightly controlled in order to maintain the effectiveness of this very important tool.

The safety and security of Canadians is of paramount importance to the Government of Canada. We are committed to collaborating with all public alerting stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of the NPAS to ensure this important tool reflects the growing range of potential emergencies Canadians may face.