Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My apologies, Mr. Lemay. “Given this combination of factors, the current system is challenged to provide equitable service levels for First Nations Albertans.”

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is, and it was conducted by the Department of Indian Affairs itself.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I was able to write to the information line that the Government of Alberta has. They have a website, and you send in your question and they send out the data. They provided me with the following statistics as of March 2010. They say that as of the 2006-07 fiscal year, the number of status Indian children in care in Alberta was 3,535.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. With regard to why it's the exclusive option, we don't know. That would be an important question to ask the minister. There were two jointly developed solutions in partnerships with first nations: the 2000 report, of course, the joint national policy review, or NPR, as it's better known; and the Wen:de reports, which were developed in partnership between the Assembly of First Nations and the department and included the expertise of over 20 leading experts.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's an honour to be here, and I'd like to thank all committee members for convening a session on this important issue. This is an opportunity like no other. You have a chance today to make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of children, and all it will require is for you to breathe life into the very values that our honoured veterans have fought for in the Second World War, in Korea, and now in Afghanistan.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, I'm not a lawyer. Sorry.

Human Resources committee  Yes, I absolutely think it can be. It's not just Yellowhead Tribal Services. Mi'kmaq Family and Children's Services in Nova Scotia has another exemplary program. We're seeing that when first nations have control over their adoption services, the outcomes for children are better.

Human Resources committee  I think it's important for the child to know who he or she is. This is their heritage. It's where they come from. In any cultural group, as you know, Madam Member, there is great diversity, and that's the richness of the people of that country. If this child is an indigenous child from anywhere else in the world, they have a right to know that.

Human Resources committee  The international law standards in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples say children have a right to their indigenous culture. I think it's the obligation of adoptive parents as well as countries to ensure children know who they are, and through that knowledge, they are provided with an opportunity to reach out to members of their group and understand who they are on a better level.

Human Resources committee  I'm not saying that's exclusive, but I'm thinking isn't it a better idea if you know as much about the child as possible in order to find the best adoptive family? If you know the child is indigenous, and you have two families--one who's indigenous from that cultural group here, or roughly the same cultural group as the child, and one who's not--doesn't it make sense to at least consider that as a factor?

Human Resources committee  The real key for them is that they provide that holistic support. It's really about a child being adopted by a whole community. I went to one of the adoption ceremonies, Madam Member. There were approximately six children there. Only one was a baby. The rest were between the ages of about six and 16, and some of them had special needs.

Human Resources committee  The short answer is no. There are individual communities that do a good job of tracking that. I think it's really important to highlight Yellowhead Tribal Services again. When the mainstream were doing adoptions they said there weren't any first nations parents available. But when Yellowhead Tribal Services took over and provided the type of nurturing, support, and home studies that didn't compromise quality, they found there were a lot of family community members who were willing to step forward.

Human Resources committee  If we provide proper supports, we can ensure that just about every child is placed within an aboriginal home. If we don't provide proper supports, I don't know what those proportions would be. How do we track it? We create a national database on first nations children's issues.

Human Resources committee  All the research suggests that would be the case. We wouldn't see a turnaround in the shorter term, but over the longer term we would expect to see, in a healthy and functioning child welfare system, the number of aboriginal children in care reflect the percentage of children in the population.

Human Resources committee  You know, there are only two repatriation programs across the country, despite the harms of the “sixties scoop” and now the multi-generational effects of child welfare. There is no funding provided by the federal government to support first nations, Métis, or Inuit communities in being able to bring back community members who were placed outside of their communities.