Good morning, everyone.
I would like to call to order meeting number 36 of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), today we are doing a study of the federal support measures to adoptive parents.
I am very pleased today to have four witnesses with us who are going to be talking about some of their experiences. Primarily they are going to be speaking about what kinds of measures the federal government can provide parents who are adopting children, as well as those children who are being adopted.
First of all, I want to thank you so much for being here. We really look forward to hearing your stories. We would ask that you try, as much as possible, to stay within those parameters. Give us a very brief description of your experience. Then if you could let us know what kinds of supports the federal government could provide, or could do a better job of in helping adoptive parents and the whole adoption process, that would be very appreciated by the committee. It would help us to do our work.
As a quick note to the committee members, on your orders of the day we do have committee business at the end of the day. However, Mr. Lessard will not be moving that motion. We will go right through until the end of the meeting, as per usual, and we'll deal with any motion at another time.
We will begin today. We have four witnesses. We have Jane Blannin-Bruleigh, who is a social worker. As well, we have Jennifer Haire, Kim Jones, and Sandy Kowalko.
Again, ladies, we thank you all for being here. I'd ask that each of you stay within a five-mimute to seven-minute timeframe. If you keep an eye on me, I'll let you know when your time is up. We are pretty strict on time around here because we have such a short amount of it.
I will begin with Ms. Jones.
Thank you.