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Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was transport.

Last in Parliament October 2015, as Conservative MP for Essex (Ontario)

Lost his last election, in 2015, with 36% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Privilege November 26th, 2009

We are talking about a specific ten percenter and its content in the debate, Madam Speaker. Now we are talking about climate change. I would at least ask you to advise the member to stick to the discussion at hand.

Privilege November 26th, 2009

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Correct me if I am wrong, but the issue of climate change is not the content of the ten percenter in question. I would certainly instruct—

Support Measures for Adoptive Parents November 24th, 2009

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues who have spoken in the debate on Motion No. 386. I also thank the minister for her openness in considering a study by a parliamentary committee. I thank the opposition party critics as well who have spoken in support of my motion.

We are on the cusp of a landmark study on adoption in Canada backed by what I hope will be the unanimous resolve of this House. There is no better time to do this than in November, which is Adoption Awareness Month across North America.

I also want to thank my wife Sarah, mom to our five biological children. As a family we support three children and their parents through Compassion Canada. We have been readying our hearts and our home to receive through international adoption what we hope will be a baby girl from China.

My biological mother came to Canada from Croatia, four months pregnant with me, in 1970. A teenage mother sponsored by an uncle, she hid her pregnancy and ultimately put me up for adoption in 1971. Incidentally, that was the first year of maternity benefits in Canada. While we have added benefit improvements to support parents, we have not had the opportunity to take a cross-country look into what I call the infrastructure supporting adoption. I submit this is the time to do that.

As an MP and with all the privileges of such an office, I am wary of giving direction to standing committees as they are masters of their own affairs, but let me offer a couple of suggested principles to guide a detailed study on adoption.

First, family is the building block of any society. Society, including through the policies of government, has a deep and abiding interest in the successful attachment of adopted children to their adoptive parents as much as it does in biological children to their biological parents. Second, though biological and adoptive parenting may differ, they are of equal value.

Let us dream big for just a moment. I have a vision of a Canada big enough and loving enough to affirm the value of all children, adoptive and biological, children from both Canada and abroad. We have the affluence to open our hearts and homes. We have couples with the desire to adopt. We have some of the pieces in place to make adoption possible.

We have not achieved permanent placement in stable families for all children. Foster parenting is an amazing calling, to open up one's heart and home temporarily, knowing a child could be placed with a permanent family in short order, only to open up one's heart and home temporarily again for another child. Foster parenting is an amazing thing.

Too many children are in foster care today in Canada, growing up within that system and without the stability of a permanent loving family and the strong attachments of family so necessary to successful life outcomes. Adoption needs to work for them too, from toddler to young adult.

Then there are children with special needs, beautiful and uniquely gifted for their own special calling in life. Quick adoption is usually available for these children, yet there are many who are still not adopted. Adoption needs to work for them too.

What about children the world over who are victims of natural disaster, famine, civil unrest or war? Those among us willing and able to adopt are key to the well-being of such children. The mid-20th century infrastructure of adoption is not enough to make such permanent placement in Canadian families a reality.

Maybe it is time we created an adoption class at Citizenship and Immigration Canada where such children in need of parents who cannot be placed in stable families in their own country of birth could find a new family in Canada. That would take a new paradigm of thinking, a new infrastructure for adoption in Canada.

There are myriad challenges facing adoptive parents in Canada as well. There are no systematic post-adoption supports for Canadian parents after the child is placed in the home. There are many things for the human resources committee to study.

I encourage the HUMA committee to do a big study, not a little one, and engage Canadians from sea to sea in its discussion. Its report is going to be looked at by not just this government but by many people across Canada. I know studies provide lots of recommendations, but I suggest that the committee draw attention to a couple of really important ones. Otherwise people may say there is just too much to do. We want to avoid bureaucratic inertia.

I call on all members of the House to please support Motion No. 386, keeping in mind the thousands of hopeful parents and thousands more children, from infant to adolescent, who want adoption for their futures.

International Trade November 16th, 2009

Mr. Speaker, history shows that when times get tough the worst thing countries can do is retreat into protectionism. That is why it is important, more than ever, to oppose protectionism and defend free and open trade on the world stage. For Canada, this means opening new doors for Canadian businesses.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade tell the House what the government is doing to create new business opportunities for Canadians?

Economic Recovery Act (Stimulus) November 6th, 2009

Madam Speaker, as further evidence that the government is razor-focused on recovery, the Windsor area, which has the highest unemployment in Canada, has the highest stimulus investments in the country.

Is that not proof to the member that the government is getting the job done?

Support Measures for Adoptive Parents October 30th, 2009

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his support in seconding the bill and for the support he has provided to me in this debate.

The current tax credit is $10,000. Of course, that is a non-refundable credit, so it is not for the full $10,000 in terms of the effective value of it. However, I think it takes a significant step forward toward addressing some of the cost. The committee may want to take a good look at whether or not that should be augmented.

There is still a fairly expensive process involved here and the committee could be able to weigh that out in its deliberations. Maybe it will come to the agreement that this is something that could be augmented. Maybe it could be doubled. I am not sure. We have to get a sense of how many adoptions we are talking about, what the fiscal impact could be, and whether that reaches far enough to help offset some of the cost at tax time for those going through the adoption process.

Again, I look forward to the study being undertaken and the witnesses that will come forward. I want to hear some more of the testimony. I have my own thoughts on it, but I would love to hear what comes out from Canadians from sea to sea as they begin to unpack this issue in front of Parliament.

Support Measures for Adoptive Parents October 30th, 2009

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague across the way for his collegiality. He has been very generous in terms of his time spent with me and in his understanding of where I am coming from on this particular issue.

I do have a couple of ideas. I do not want to overly inform. Obviously, I respect that committees are masters of their own destiny. However, there are a couple of things that I think stand out in the research around the experiences of adoptive parents.

First, the process of adoption is very costly. Second, there is a need for time to be spent; part of it is transitional. There is some of the chaos that we talked about, the difficult circumstances when entering into adoption, as well as the additional time necessary for the bonding and the attachment between an adoptive parent and the adopted child.

We need to take those two factors into consideration and agree to start with the principle that there is equal value for parenting, whether it is adoptive or biological. It is of equal value for the children, whether it is biological or adopted. I mentioned this idea of transitional leave through the EI program. It would help with some of that.

We may want to look at a measure that would tackle some of the costs. I know that we already have an income tax credit. Perhaps we could look at augmenting that tax credit to offset some of the additional costs. Those are a couple of ideas, but I think that there are also groups out there that will come before the committee and provide some very instructive ideas.

I am sincerely hoping that we will also generate a report that will be practical and implementable, not all over the place. I look forward to the work of the committee and my colleague opposite in leading the opposition's efforts over there.

Support Measures for Adoptive Parents October 30th, 2009

moved:

That the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development, and the Status of Persons with Disabilities be instructed to examine current federal support measures that are available to adoptive parents and their adopted children, recognizing and respecting provincial and territorial jurisdictions in this regard and, following completion of its study, report back to the House with its findings.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today to speak on my motion regarding the subject of federal supports for adoptive parents.

My Motion No. 386 recommends the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development, and the Status of Persons with Disabilities examine current federal support measures available for adoptive parents, while recognizing and respecting provincial and territorial jurisdiction. Such a study would be beneficial in helping us evaluate current public policy, while shedding more light on issues faced by adoptive parents.

Some hon. members may be surprised to discover that I was adopted as an infant into the care of a wonderful family, and that I count an esteemed senator and Hockey Hall of Fame forward as a relative through my biological mother.

It may come as a further surprise that my wife, Sarah, and I have desired for several years now to add to our five beautiful biological children and adopt a child as well. It is this journey that has connected us to many other Canadians who are seeking to adopt, or who have adopted, and the myriad challenges they face along the way.

I will come back to this later in my comments, but first, let us establish a clear foundation.

The family is the basic building block of society. Everything starts with the family. It is where we raise, nurture and protect our children. It is where we teach them about who they are, where they come from and why they are here. So much of our society's future depends upon ensuring Canadian families receive the proper respect and support they need to ensure their children succeed, learn, grow and take their place in society.

Let us agree that there is equal value for parenting, whether one is a biological or adoptive parent. Let us also agree that there is equal value for children, whether biological or adopted. And let this fundamental accord ultimately find full expression in the policy choices of government.

Currently there are several support measures available to adoptive parents. EI parental benefits are available for working parents. Our Conservative government passed Bill C-14, granting permanent resident status or Canadian citizenship to adopted children, making that process quicker and easier. Adoptive parents are also eligible for a range of supports that our government provides to families with children, including the adoption tax credit, which helps defray the cost of adoption at tax time.

Adoptive parents also receive the universal child care benefit of $100 per child under six and the child tax credit of $2,000 per child under 18, measures enacted by this government. As well, they are eligible for the Canada child benefit and the national child benefit supplement for families with low and middle income levels.

By way of example, and as the most visible support available to adoptive parents, let me speak more fully about the EI program and its special benefits, which include parental benefits.

The EI program currently includes four types of special benefits to support working Canadians when they experience an interruption in earnings owing to childbirth, parenting, illness or the provision of care or support to a gravely ill family member.

The EI program has provided maternity benefits to a maximum of 15 weeks since 1971. These weeks are specifically for birth mothers to recover while they are physically unable to work due to pregnancy or childbirth. Maternity benefits can start up to eight weeks prior to the expected date of birth, and allow biological mothers to recuperate after childbirth and care for their newborn infants during their first weeks after the birth.

The EI program helps both biological and adoptive parents balance work and family responsibilities by providing support for them to stay home with their newly born or adopted child. These are parental benefits and they are payable to a maximum of 35 weeks. Adoptive parents may receive these benefits from the date the child is placed with the new family, and the 35 weeks of parental benefits can be used by either the mother or father, or shared between them.

There are some elements under maternity and parental EI benefits designed to make the program flexible and supportive. For example, if parental benefits are being shared by both parents, only one waiting period needs to be served. If a child has to be hospitalized, parents can choose to claim parental benefits immediately or when the child comes home from the hospital.

Additional benefits are also available to assist low-income families with children through the family supplement, which can increase the basic benefit rate from 55% to a maximum of 80% for claimants with low net family incomes.

A further element of flexibility is parents may collect maternity and parental benefits while out of the country by advising Service Canada of their absence from Canada before leaving.

The EI program also allows parents to work while on claim. Effective as of December last year, our government increased the amount that could be earned while working part-time and receiving EI benefits. Some families require that.

Last, I will not to go into possible maternity benefits for self-employed Canadians except to say that a government bill will ultimately capture that part of the debate.

Biological and adoptive parents share many things. Bringing a baby home is exciting, exhilarating and exhausting. There is a shared concern about having the abilities and the time needed to lay a solid foundation for a healthy relationship with their children. Both biological and adoptive parents need recuperation for emotional, physical and psychological effects of receiving children.

While maternity benefits recognize this for biological parents, currently there is no additional benefit for adoptive parents. There are some real and often little or unknown challenges facing adoptive parents, which birth parents do not face and which need to be considered in the light of public policy.

First, adoption means parents have to prove they are acceptable in order to receive a child and the process is gruelling. The same is not true of biological parents. As one adoptive mother shared with me, “We were meeting with the social worker and watching our family, marriage, children and history get picked apart and analyzed. We spent four months under an intense microscope. They questioned our motives, our communication, our parenting and our marriage. We usually left these meetings feelings wrung out and completely bare”.

The same mother understood the need for ensuring the fitness and commitment of potential parents for adopting a child but, nevertheless, what it underscore is this process is draining and something biological parents do not have to face.

Second, the time before receiving the child can be very different for biological and adoptive parents. Not only is the screening process I spoke of emotionally taxing, but the process of adoption has fees and costs, not to mention the abundant lost work time, and that is income that is not replaced.

Adoptive parents almost always wait longer to receive their child than biological parents. Gestation is usually not longer than nine and a half months. While quick adoptions are available for those seeking a child with special needs, beyond that adoptive parents wait and wait.

Adoptive parents are at a disadvantage to biological parents in the attachment process before receiving a child. Attachment starts for biological parents during the pregnancy. Mom begins to feel and experience fetal development and movement in her own body. Dad can begin to experience and relate to the developing baby in utero, as well. With the marvels of modern ultrasound, biological moms and dads can see their baby long before birth.

Adoptive parents, on the other hand, cannot begin the process of attachment until their child is placed with them. Though, in some cases, like private adoptions, where the mother is known to prospective adoptive parents, the process of attachment can begin earlier. However, there is little freedom to fully enter into attachment for either parents-to-be or a child with remaining ties to the biological mother and the prospect that after child placement, the biological mother can revoke her decision to put the child up for adoption. In most cases, however, the child is unknown to the hopeful parents until the time of placement.

Third, adoptive parents usually have little notice when it is time to receive their child. For biological parents, and as a father of five, with a wife who as a doula or a birth coach has attended some 200 live births, I have a little knowledge about this, normal pregnancy offers many clues to the arrival of baby in the lead-up to birth. As such, maternity benefits can be planned for. For adoptive parents, pre-placement is a wait, then a frantically, or almost chaotically at times, hurry up. Such a situation leaves little or no opportunity to prepare for placement by arranging proper leave from work. In other words, transition is far from seamless for adoptive parents.

Fourth, birth always involves a baby. Adoption does not. The older the adopted child, often the tougher is the transition for parent and child. Older children who are adopted can experience developmental delays or health issues that can complicate the process of attachment to adoptive parents.

Because older children come with a history, either with the biological mother or through foster care, they can often be dealing with issues of loss, trauma, neglect or multiple caregivers. Moreover, barriers to successful parent-child attachment perpetuate the child's inability to form trusting and reliable relationships in life.

Consider Jennifer L. and the transitional difficulties that she, her husband, Jason, their three biological children and her then two-year-old adopted son, who had a history of neglect from his biological mother, experienced. She stated:

“No one will ever convince me that children have less awareness than adults. Sometimes...they're more keenly aware of what is happening. That was true for our little boy. He knew [his biological mother] was leaving him forever and reacted like she was. I've never heard a cry like that one that came out of his little body that day, not before, nor since. He shook with loss, sobbed with loss, fully understood loss and a part of his heart was broken. That's what it sounded like. Five years later we still face it every once in a while: a broken heart more ready to lash out at love than to receive it and more able to test than trust”.

Once our parental rights were established, two weeks after “leaving day” we thought he'd be able to experience a smooth transition into our family. We spent a year thinking that every day. And every day his actions begged that we reject him...If we hugged, he bit. If we praised, he ripped. He banged his head into walls and threw himself off stairs. He rolled screaming from one end of the room to the other for hours and hours - sometimes the entire time he was awake. And we loved and we cried and we despaired and we held on harder. We were told he had an attachment disorder. No one needed to tell us - we lived it. When I considered the attachment I had with my biological children I remembered the time spent holding them as infants, rocking, and cradling them. So we wrapped him in a snuggly and we held him. And he screamed. And we held him longer.

The stress was overwhelming. The bar for adoption had been set so high we felt as though we had barely been approved as parents. Would they now take him away? We were failing. Our children were stressed. They all had eagerly anticipated this little brother. And he had rejected them completely. As a family we decided to make lists of what we were thankful for in him so we could yell them out in the midst of his yelling. He had an amazing giggle. He loved to help. He made us laugh. And when he disconnected from us these kept us holding on”.

Jennifer's experience is not uncommon for parents who adopt children that are older than infants.

We rightly recognize the value of biological motherhood and time together for biological parents and children as a worthwhile investment, but what about adoptive parents? They need their unique circumstances understood by those with a mandate to legislate, to know that their desire to parent is met with policies that support their choice to adopt.

It has been said “It takes a village to raise a child”. With thousands of children in foster care across Canada and children orphaned around the world through famine, natural disaster, civil unrest and wars, those among us able and willing to adopt are key to the well-being of these children and to the building of vibrant families and communities. A grateful society must do all it can to assist them in their parenthood journey.

I call on the House to support this motion to have the HUMA committee study the supports available to adoptive parents. Let it call witnesses to explore the challenges of adoptive parents. Let it examine both domestic and international adoptions. Let it compare what supports are offered in other jurisdictions like Quebec and B.C. Can we find a consensus around two or three issues that, no matter our partisan stripe, we can all support?

Maybe after hearing testimony, committee members will agree with me that it is time for a flexible EI adoption transition leave of comparable length to maternity benefits. Colleagues, I have a vision of a Canada big enough and loving enough to affirm the value of all children. Join with me and vote yes on Motion No. 386.

Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act October 30th, 2009

Mr. Speaker, I wonder whether the hon. member could explain to the House how a victim of terrorism would proceed to sue perpetrators or supporters of terrorism under Bill C-35.

Retribution on Behalf of Victims of White Collar Crime Act October 23rd, 2009

Madam Speaker, I believe if you seek it you will get unanimous consent to see the clock as 1:30 p.m.