Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, of course, to our witnesses as well for appearing, and for your testimony and your recommendations today.
There are some, perhaps even at this table, who would suggest that there's not much of a role for the federal government to play at all. The process of adoption and some of the services around adoption are either privately delivered or provincially or territorially delivered. Therefore, as a consequence, I might even suggest that we narrow the scope of the study and the number of meetings that are held on that. I want to address that in just a moment by pursuing a certain line of questioning. I hope to come back and address this.
Currently we have 13 separate jurisdictions for adoption in Canada--10 provinces and three territories. Do we know if the number of children in foster care is trending upward? Has it been reasonably stable over time? Is it going down?