Just to answer the final question first, we have been discussing this bill and the ultimate regulations with stakeholders, primarily the provinces. We've been having that conversation with provincial governments for a number of months, if not years. The bill was drafted particularly in concert with the Province of Quebec in order to guarantee that extra step that's necessary in Quebec adoptions.
We have undertaken to share the draft regulations with the provinces and other key stakeholders, and will certainly be sharing think documents, think pieces, with them over the summer.
The final process has not yet been regularized. It's likely to look very much like the present immigration process, where the adopting parent can start the process of applying for a grant of citizenship even before they have a named child. Most often what happens is that the parent contacts the province and indicates that they're interested in adopting. Preliminary communication starts with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and then the parent contacts the foreign country or the foreign country's agencies to identify a child. So we would start the process on the citizenship side, and once the child had been identified and the match had taken place between the parent and the child, the application would be finalized. All of that has yet to be finally nailed down, but it will be very similar to the existing process.
On the numbers from various countries, I don't have that broken down by province. We have shared some information with the committee on the number of immigration adoptions where the adoption has been finalized. That's in the range of 2,000 per year. That does not include the individuals who are to be adopted in Canada. In other words, these are adoptions that have been finalized overseas and are the best match to the Bill C-14 scenario.
Children to be adopted in Canada are the ones Rose referred to in the slide on page 6. For those individuals, the Bill C-14 process would only kick in once the adoption had been completed in Canada. In other words, they'd have to come in via the immigration process and have the adoption finally recognized in Canada--be adopted. Only after they were adopted would the Bill C-14 process take place.