Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like my colleague, from Fort Providence, I too, Mr. Minister, have a concern about native custom adoptions.
Being a social worker for many years, I have assisted many parents in custom adopting children. I find it sometimes very difficult to load all of the necessary forms, so that it can go before the court system for final approval. Ten years, or fifteen years later down the road, I begin to see that many of these native custom adopted children have become victims of the law, not through their own circumstances.
Do we really look at what kind of guidelines we are using? Are the adoptive parents able to provide food, shelter and clothing? Do they have traditional skills or modern day employment like we see down south? Do we look at that, or just for the sake that it was our tradition and our custom to adopt?
I think the department, along with Social Services, should look into this matter. I think that if the social workers are put under too much pressure, knowing full well that maybe, just maybe, this adoptive home is not the right situation, or the right environment for this new baby. Many years ago native custom adoption had a very good purpose, to assist and to provide a service for your adoptive parents who may have been widowed, or may have grown old, through the aging process.
I think we have got to really look carefully at the meaning of what custom adoption is all about now, because the focus has completely changed from thirty, forty years ago, to what it is today. I could ramble on, and on, about what I have seen in the past, but I would like you to seriously look at putting, not preventative stuff, but guidelines, so that it would not make it that difficult, but just to provide the basics for these children who are being adopted. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.