Mr. Speaker, as I listened to the testimonials of various speakers today, I was very moved. It was very touching to hear the life story from the Liberal member for Nipissing—Timiskaming in regard to the adoption by his family.
I appreciate the support the motion is receiving and I commend the member for whom this has been a real issue. The member for Essex, whether in caucus or in the House, is always bringing forward policies or policy initiatives dealing with the fundamental institution in this country, the family. The member for Essex has done a remarkable job putting forward issues that help enhance the strong unit called the family, and the motion before us would do that. The motion reads:
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 jurisdiction in this regard and, following completion of the study, report back to the House with its findings.
For those who may be listening to the parliamentary station, this is a very substantive motion. The motion is saying that we need to do our homework, that we need to have a standing committee look at the rights of the adoptive parents, the birth parents, the biological parents and the children, and that we need to put our information together, not for politics because it sounds like most parties will support the motion, and come up with a comprehensive strategy that will make the family unit even stronger and our country stronger as well.
I applaud the member who has, in the past, been very forthcoming in bringing forward this type of policy. He has done it again and I commend him for doing that.
I do not know where to begin but I will talk about my own life. My wife and I were married in 1986 and we had plans for a large family. That is what we had hoped for and what we had prayed for. After a number of years, however, it became evident that was not going to happen. All of a sudden, we found that we were not alone. We found that there were literally thousands of Canadians with the same type of difficulty. Then the process began. I remember the disappointment on my wife's face as friends made the announcement that they were pregnant. We rejoiced with them and were excited for them but there was always that hurt. When we went to the mall, it seemed that many young ladies were pregnant. After years of marriage, we realized we would never be able to rejoice for our own in that way.
I will tell members why this motion is important. We began the process as a young married couple with a house payment, a new job and a car payment. We were young and just starting out. Although we were blessed with jobs, we had a passion to have a family. We realized that it would be very expensive. If this were a priority for us, we knew we would need to commit to saving, to budgeting, to planning and all those things in order to fulfill our dreams of a family.
I had played some hockey in Saskatoon and worked in Saskatoon. We ended up moving back to Alberta. The very first thing we did was to seek out an adoption agency. We went through what is called the Christian Adoption Agency in Calgary. We found people there who were very easy to deal with and to speak with and had a real love and concern for what we were going through. They introduced us to the process in which we would find ourselves over the next number of years.
We found out that we needed a home study. A social worker would come in and do a long study as to whether we would we be effective parents.
I think the member for Vegreville—Wainwright talked about some of the issues of the home study. The social workers went into everything. They looked at the finances, at what was going on in the home and at the extended family. They looked at everything. It cost us a significant amount money in order to do this, money that we had set aside over a long period of time. However, I am glad they did. I would never want to see that process cut short where we made adoption available for anyone. Although the desire to have children is perhaps by anyone, I think there were certain things that they really checked on to ensure we would be a loving and solid family.
As I stated, when we moved to Alberta, a home study was done. We went through the wait, which is the best way to describe it. We put forward a scrapbook. Different people looked at the file and eventually we received the call. Our whole life changed. It was like every prayer we had given had been answered. We took off and we went to where this young lady had given birth to a beautiful young girl and she had chosen us. That had very much significance.
I do not want to go through the whole thing but we now have two children that were through this adoption process and in each case it was very different.
The 10 day wait period is a time where young couples are on the edge of their chairs. They are hoping now that the phone will not ring. First they are hoping that it will ring and that they have been chosen but in the next 10 days where the birth mother has the opportunity to change her mind, they hope the phone will not ring. We were blessed both times that the call did not come and that we were able to raise a young daughter who is now 17 and a son who is 15.
This has changed our lives. Every day I am thankful for the family that we have. I really believe that it is in the best interest of our country that we continue to encourage strong family units. It is the building block. We talked about that today. I think it may have been the Liberal member who said that it is the main building block of our country.
As a government, we have looked at legislation continually and have asked whether it will be family friendly legislation. We have brought forward very positive steps that have been family friendly. As the member for Essex has done, he has brought forward ideas that have come into policy, and here is another example.
What we are calling for now is that we sit down with all members of the committee and look at the process again and ask about the lead up to the birth mother having a child. Is there something for an adoptive family? Is there time that should be recognized because of the major change all of a sudden in their status or in their family dynamics. What about after?
We have seen already that there has been an extension to EI benefits. We need to continue to look at ways to enhance this process. There are many different opportunities and ways to realize a family now, but in this process we need to look at this and say that this is what we can do. Because of motions like this, this government is willing to say that this is important and that we will move forward and make it even better.