Wife of missing Winnipeg man now receiving his pension, push for national Silver Alert system suffers setback

Danton Unger reports on the major setback in the push for a national Silver Alert system.

It’s one step forward and two steps back for the Moberg family, who continue to deal with hurdles more than a year after Earl Moberg went missing.

Earl, who had advanced dementia, was last seen in the River East area on Dec. 12, 2023. He was 81 years old when he went missing, and his family believed he got lost while out on a walk.

Even though an investigation is ongoing and there have been multiple searches, his family has said he is presumed dead.

Earl’s wife Brenda has since been fighting to receive her husband’s survivor’s benefit through his Canadian Pension Plan.

However, her original application was denied as she was told she needed to prove her husband was dead.

“They wanted a death certificate, and then they wanted the police reports. Both of which I couldn’t get,” said Brenda.

She said for him to be legally presumed dead, it would have required getting lawyers involved.

Instead, she appealed the decision, and within a month, her letter was approved, with Service Canada deeming Earl dead as of the day he went missing.

“It took a long time, and I think the reason, one of the reasons why I was able to get it, is because of the media,” she said. “I don’t know if I could have done it on my own, really.”

After receiving approval, Brenda said regular payments started in March, which was fitting as it was her and Earl’s 50th anniversary. She said she knows he would have wanted to do something big for the special occasion.

While it is a victory for Brenda, the Mobergs still have another battle to fight.

Britt Moberg, Earl and Brenda’s daughter, has been working to have the federal government create a national Silver Alert system.

This system would send notifications to cellphones in the area where vulnerable seniors are believed to have gone missing.

Britt and her family had collected 4,600 signatures for a federal petition, and the plan was to bring it to parliament.

“It’s very important to get the public aware as fast as possible so that we can find people alive,” Britt said.

But now that an election has been called and parliament has been dissolved, the petition needs to be resubmitted from scratch.

“It was difficult news to get that we need to be resubmitting this,” said Britt.

It was confirmed to Britt that she and her family would have to start the entire process again, meaning requesting a sponsor and collecting new signatures.

“It was disappointing. We put so much work into this,” said Britt.

“A step back,” said Brenda. “That was really hard…because of all the work that we did for the petition. But like people have said, the next petition will be better, and we’ll get more signatures on it.”

Despite the turn of events, Britt said she is hopeful there will be a Silver Alert system in place one day in Canada.

“I want to see this through. And I think that this could have saved my father’s life, and I think that this could save other people’s lives in the future,” said Britt.

“I think it’s really important, especially with the population growing so quickly of people living with dementia. It’s going to be more important than ever to have this in place.”

A new petition will be able to be submitted starting on May 19.

- With files from CTV’s Danton Unger