Evidence of meeting #37 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was families.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:30 a.m.
Executive Director, Adoption Support Centre of Saskatchewan
We have no private adoption agencies. It's entirely public.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
Maurice Vellacott Conservative Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, SK
We have none at all now. We did in the past. I know there was a Christian adoption agency up in Saskatoon. And they folded because....
10:30 a.m.
Executive Director, Adoption Support Centre of Saskatchewan
We had one--Christian Counselling Services. It was more a question of money than anything. Most people who went to them were looking for infant adoption, and my understanding is that they were not able to keep up their services for lack of funding.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
Maurice Vellacott Conservative Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, SK
As you're funded by the province, you may want to be careful how you respond here, of course, but would you say it is a good thing to have some of those other players out there instead of having the monolith of a public system only? It would seem to me that it was. At least I know that in conversations I had with people who approached Christian Counselling at the time--
10:30 a.m.
Executive Director, Adoption Support Centre of Saskatchewan
When it comes to private adoption, yes, it is. Our biggest adoption problems and disruptions occur through private adoption due to a lack of information and appropriate counselling and timely planning. So definitely, yes, I would change the strategy and the formula and how they operate it...but it definitely would be beneficial.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
Maurice Vellacott Conservative Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, SK
Okay, and then you can respond.... I call Jeff our well-beloved adoptive son here, who has a great heart for this area of ministry.
Can you tell us a little bit in terms of the unique things that parents would face in adopting? Things don't always go normally, I guess.
10:30 a.m.
Executive Director, Adoption Support Centre of Saskatchewan
Exactly.
You do have an additional information piece through the EI benefits. If you look at some of the things the parents are talking about there, we want to minimize adoption disruptions. When children who have had extremely severe experiences come into families, those families don't always understand. They are trying to meet those needs. So not always do families attach to their children. Sometimes that's a long process.
Families, particularly mothers, struggle with guilt, infertility, grief, loss, not being able to attach to a child who is not biologically related to them, with that child's physical and mental needs. So, for example—and I'll be direct—your child wakes up in the middle of the night and is urinating in a corner and you need to find out the underlying reason for that. Now, that's the need of the child, but how do the parents cope with that? You're dealing with lack of sleep, you're dealing with a child who won't sleep so therefore you're not sleeping. And I could go on forever.
There's a lot of research out there for the impact that adoptive parents experience in the adoption process.
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Josée Beaudin Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
Thank you.
Good morning to you all. In fact, I only have one question since I only have three minutes.
My question is for you, Mr. Paulin, I believe you were deputy minister in New Brunswick.
10:30 a.m.
Bloc
Josée Beaudin Bloc Saint-Lambert, QC
As a former provincial deputy minister, how do you think a provincial jurisdiction could improve this type of file? Also, what's being done well? Could you tell me a little about how we could intervene?
10:30 a.m.
Board Member, New Brunswick Adoption Foundation
That's a good question. When I was deputy minister, we held what we called FPT meetings, federal-provincial/territorial meetings. Child welfare-related topics were never on the agenda. Child protection was, but child welfare and adoption were never discussed. At one point, there were what was called child welfare services directors, or directors of child welfare. That's virtually disappeared now; they now have virtually no role to play, and that's not very important. The only point at which adoption or child welfare became an issue was when there were child deaths. Whatever the case may be, adoption is never really in the news, unless someone organizes a major information and awareness campaign, as was done in New Brunswick in 2002.
Going back to the federal-provincial/territorial meetings, when the deputy ministers met, that topic was never addressed, so it could not be expected that... The deputy ministers normally submit topics for discussion to their superiors for the federal-provincial/territorial meetings which the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada attends. In the three or four years when I was at the department, those topics were not put on the agenda, but social services, yes.
So that was a problem that was not discussed. There were very few discussions on the topic. So I'm very pleased that these issues are now being addressed by a parliamentary committee. I would have liked that to happen in my time, but it's never too late.
10:30 a.m.
Some voices
Oh, oh!
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Candice Bergen
You do have a few seconds, Monsieur Lessard. Could you make it very brief? We have committee business.
10:35 a.m.
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
This will take me 30 seconds.
I'd simply like to supplement the question that my colleague asked about federal responsibilities. Do you want to target one or more things in particular that should be improved or changed?
10:35 a.m.
Board Member, New Brunswick Adoption Foundation
Yes, I would like to target parental leave. A parent is a parent. In my opinion, whether these people are natural parents, biological parents or adoptive parents, they are parents and they have full responsibility. There should be no difference. Whether it be employment insurance, parental leave or all the other programs, the same benefits should be granted.
I know of situations in which adoptive parents are real parents. There are no second-class parents; these are full-time parents. Often, as Ms. Xavier explained earlier, there are many other challenges that what are considered normal families don't meet. In fact, adoptive parents should get more assistance than others.
10:35 a.m.
Some voices
Oh, oh!
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Candice Bergen
Thank you very much. We appreciate that, and the passion with which you delivered that.
10:35 a.m.
Board Member, New Brunswick Adoption Foundation
I am a parent of adopted children.
10:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Candice Bergen
On behalf of the committee, I want to say a big thank you to all of you. Ms. Xavier, I just spoke to you on Monday, and you hadn't even heard about our study. So I want to thank you for coming on short notice. I'd like to thank the rest of you for being here. Ms. Smith, thank you so much for being here.
We will break for about 20 seconds and then we'll resume. We have a bit of committee business. Thank you again.
10:38 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Candice Bergen
We have a bit of committee business to take care of and we have a short amount of time to do it. I think we should be able to get through it.
We have a notice of motion from Mr. Lessard. Did you wish to move that motion today, Mr. Lessard?
10:38 a.m.
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
Madam Chair, with your permission, we could postpone this business until next Tuesday in view of the fact that some questions have been raised regarding the scope of the motion. So we want to complete our business in that regard. If the committee has no objection, we could complete that business next Tuesday.
10:38 a.m.
Conservative