Thank you for allowing us this opportunity.
This morning when we all woke up, there were 30,000 children who woke up today who do not have a family to call their own. Why does this bother me, and why should this bother you? It is because these are Canadian children. As the mother of 14 children, it grieves me to think about a single child in this amazing country not having a family of its very own.
My name is Joy Loney, and my husband Dan and I have 14 children. Twelve years ago we opened our home to become foster parents. Little did we know the impact it would have upon our lives. Over the next six years, our family increased by six children, four of whom we were privileged to adopt. Three of these children are registered aboriginal children.
Of all families surveyed in Canada, 43% say they would consider adopting a child. This means there is a home for every child who is waiting to be adopted right here in Canada today. There are more than enough homes waiting to adopt children, but there are many bottlenecks in the way of those potential adoptions. Statistics from the United States show that 51% of kids who remain unadopted and age out of the foster system end up unemployed, 30% receive public assistance, and 25% are homeless. We expect the results in Canada to be similar. The cost to our society is evident in the failure to place children in homes that will support them, to help them avoid these outcomes.
As a mother, I bring to you the passion of a mother's heart for each of these children waiting to be adopted in Canada. We need the federal government to support the solutions to this national crisis.
My husband, Dan, will now address how this national crisis can be solved and what we need to do at the federal level.