Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister of Justice and I were given a mandate by the Members of the Assembly to do something to improve the process of recognizing native custom adoption without legislating aboriginal customary law. The Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act accomplishes this task.

During preparation of this bill, three fundamental principles were kept in mind: aboriginal customary practices are to be respected; the process should be simple and should reflect this government's commitment to community-based decision-making.

It is a bill which makes it easier for custom adoptions to be recognized under existing federal and territorial legislation. The bill proposes that custom adoptions be reviewed in the communities by adoption commissioners.

These people will be able to work with the advice and support from the communities to ensure that the tradition of finding a safe, healthy home for a child occurs when a child is placed for adoption. This is more in keeping with traditional practices than what is presently being done.

Once the Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act is in force, a simple community-based process for recognizing custom adoptions will be in place. The process for issuing new birth certificates in the Northwest Territories will be streamlined and efficient.

Mr. Chairman, I recognize that some Members would prefer that there be no legislation at all on custom adoptions. While I respect this view, the fact is that existing law results in a very difficult, complicated process which causes many people to give up in frustration. Members of the Standing Committee on Legislation heard of some of those frustrations during their public hearings on this bill.

At the appropriate time, I will introduce two motions to amend the bill which have been drafted in response to suggestions made by Members of the Standing Committee on Legislation. The first motion clarifies that the adoption must take place in accordance with aboriginal customary law. The second motion clarifies the information which is to be contained in the substitute birth registration; specifically, the inclusion of the names of the birth parents. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Gargan has asked if I would read this on behalf of the committee. The Aboriginal Custom Adoption Act was referred to the Standing Committee on Legislation on April 7, 1994. The committee began its deliberations May 16, 1994 and held public hearings in Fort Smith, Iqaluit and Yellowknife. The public was very interested in this piece of legislation and the committee received many oral presentations and submissions.

The committee would like to note at this time that Bill 2, Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act, is unique to the Northwest Territories. No other jurisdiction in Canada has attempted or currently has plans to implement legislation governing the recognition of aboriginal custom adoptions. As Members of the Assembly are aware, custom adoption is an accepted practice in the Northwest Territories.

Agreed.

Although the adoption customs may vary from region to region or community to community, custom adoptions are common practice throughout the territories.

Agreed.

Under the current recognition process, which is governed by the Child Welfare Act, people who are seeking to obtain recognition of their custom adoption to obtain new documentation such as birth certificates and social insurance numbers, find themselves frustrated by procedures and delays. The current process is found to be very involved and bureaucratic. Formal petitions to the Supreme Court must be filed, supporting documentation and affidavits must be developed and filed, social workers must assist in the application process and the Department of Justice lawyers must review them.

This process has been found to overtax resources and lead to a backlog of applications. According to departmental figures, there are currently 1,500 applications waiting to be processed at this time.

Agreed.

Bill 2, Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act, simplifies the current procedure for recognizing aboriginal custom adoption. The act allows for the appointment of Custom Adoption Commissioners in every region or every community as required. The Commissioners are appointed on recommendation of the Minister. Their role is to complete a certificate of custom adoption that will be filed in the Supreme Court and that would hold the same authority as a court order.

It was in the area of the authority of the Custom Adoption Commissioners that members of the public expressed great concern. People were not comfortable with a solitary person having the authority to approve custom adoptions. It was expressed during the public hearings that where there is clearly no problem or controversy, the bill would work very well. However, in the cases where it isn't clear that the adoption took place in an aboriginal customary manner, or where the respected Commissioner may feel pressured into signing the certificate of adoption, the bill does not provide for safeguards.

It was felt that the Adoption Commissioner might feel more comfortable making a decision if they were doing so with more than one person being responsible for that decision. Section 3(4)(b) of the bill does not make it clear that the Commissioner has the authority to determine that the adoption has taken place according to aboriginal custom. Stating that the Custom Adoption Commissioner: "shall decline to issue a certificate if the Custom Adoption Commissioner (b) is not satisfied that the adoption took place" is too vague. The bill should be amended to add, "in accordance with aboriginal custom" after the word "place" or in a manner that the legislative drafters feel is appropriate. The Minister has agreed to amend the legislation accordingly.

The bill also provides consequential amendments to the Vital Statistics Act. These amendments are administrative in nature, however, Members of the committee feel that the amendment to subsection 13(2) of the Vital Statistics Act did not hold with the spirit and intent behind aboriginal custom adoption. This amendment would see the substitution of the original live birth registration with a new registration of birth which only contains the names of the adoptive parents. Members feel that, although the file containing the natural birth parents' names would not be closed but could be accessed by the adopted person, the spirit of custom adoption promotes the association of the natural parents and the adopted child.

It was felt that a new live birth registration should be developed for custom adoptions that contains the names of both the natural and adoptive parents. The Minister agreed to address this issue through amendment.

Hear, hear.

Bill 2, Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act was well received by the public. The standing committee would like to thank all the people who made presentations to the committee. Through our deliberations and with the anticipated amendments, the committee is satisfied that this bill will provide an appropriate structure within which aboriginal custom adoptions may be recognized without legislating the customary law.

Therefore, on May 31, 1994, the committee passed a motion that this bill was ready for consideration in committee of the whole. That is the end of the report, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I have the deputy minister of Justice, Mr. Don Avison, and Mrs. Penny Ballantyne from the Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess this is one time I wouldn't have minded, as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Legislation, to have the support of other Members to defeat a bill. But, that was not to be. So, I thought I would just make some comments as an ordinary Member. I asked Mr. Lewis to present the bill because of my own beliefs about why we shouldn't have what is customary to aboriginal people as part of white laws.

One of the things that came out for the justification of the bill was birth rates. If we are going to be adopting custom adoption into white laws for the purposes of birth rates, then we are doing it for the wrong reason, absolutely. I say that because if you have 1,500 births, what does that tell you? If we put this into white law, it would make it lot easier for young people, young aboriginal girls, to get pregnant, knowing full well they are going to be adopted by their sisters or parents.

I've also heard interviews done by Dave Miller on two occasions and I'm sure most Members have heard what has been happening in that area. One of the reasons, I guess, that there is so much talk about custom adoption is because of the child abuse and sexual abuse that is happening. I want to tell you that the interviews basically focused on custom adoption, not white private adoptions. I want to make it clear that the situations that are happening with aboriginal people is no different than in white society right now. I can assure you that aboriginal people who are adopted by white homes go through the same kinds of abuse that they would if they weren't.

Nellie is aware of this too, because I tried to get a young girl from Providence back to Providence from Toronto. I appreciate her help. The Minister's department has even gone so far as to say that if the girl is willing to come back, they will cover the costs. I appreciate that. Mr. Chairman, I think we're adopting this legislation for all the wrong reasons, not for the right reasons. Customary adoption is not something that happens only between two families, it is for the survival of a nation.

The kinds of adoptions that are happening now are because of illegitimate children, children born out of wedlock. In the old traditions, those were circumstances in which custom adoption would take place. In the old days, young girls having children out of wedlock was very rare. Custom adoption also occurred when a member of a family was lost. When older people lose a loved one, they try to replace them so the old people could survive their remaining years in comfort, as opposed to hardship.

It not only happens with regard to a child being adopted, but even senior citizens being adopted to families. So it wasn't restricted to one category or group. Again, the whole purpose of custom adoption was for the survival of a nation.

I see this new act creating more problems for aboriginal people, as opposed to resolving it. We are sending signals to the young girls in our communities that it is okay to get pregnant. We will help you fill out the applications necessary so that the child can get social assistance and all assistance required by law. That is a hell of a message to be sending out. I think for any young aboriginal person who is pregnant out of wedlock, they should go for the private adoption as opposed to custom adoption. I see customary adoption as creating a bad situation for aboriginal people. It was not meant for that purpose.

There was a report done on aboriginal custom adoption. Aboriginal people say they want exclusive rights in that area. If you look at the report, it talks a lot about social workers or those people who assist in the area of caring for people, saying that isn't right and we shouldn't allow that to happen.

For the people who work in the profession, they have a different idea of what custom adoption is and the way it is being used. They have more of an insight on what custom adoption is all about. They certainly recognize that the adoption process for aboriginal people is done for the wrong reasons, as opposed to what it was meant to do. There are many decisions made now in the Supreme Court of Canada with regard to adoptive parents. Do we really need something in legislation when the Supreme Court has already recognized this through the years, to a point where it is protected under section 35 of the Constitution?

What are we doing here? Making it easier for people to do their paperwork. I don't know what else to say. Myself, as a grandparent, I have a young daughter who had two children before she finally settled down. For us to adopt those children for those reasons, it isn't right. I couldn't do it for that reason only. Any parent who has those moral values, wouldn't encourage something like this.

I had asked that we don't support this act, but most of the other Members didn't. So I thought I would just make that point, for the record. I think we are doing this for the wrong reasons. Perhaps in years to come, there will be an increasing number of illegitimate children being born because we made it so easy for them to do it. Thank you.

I apologize, Mr. Chairman. I don't know what you can use to replace hell, but I am trying. I was just saying to create an act to make things easier for teenagers to get pregnant is not the right reason to have an act. That is what I meant.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, heaven knows what better process we will get in the future, but for the time being, perhaps a minority of the people we talked to during the consultation were in support of Bill 2. It is one step ahead of the government, recognizing custom adoption. To me, that is one step forward. If there is another mechanism where we will make custom adoption...I think the fact that the government is finally going to recognize custom adoption in the territories is something to be thankful for, Mr. Chairman.

I don't believe Bill 2 is going to increase the pregnancy in young people in this jurisdiction. Young girls getting pregnant is part of nature. Ever since man and woman were created, we have had unmarried women getting pregnant. It is a fact of life, Mr. Chairman. I don't believe the Aboriginal Custom Adoption Recognition Act is going to see any increase in children being abused. Children have always been abused, in the past. It is unfortunate. I think we, the politicians in this jurisdiction, are the ones who can try to address the unfortunate act of when kids are being abused. We can address that. We may not be able to eliminate young children being abused by their parents or adoptive parents.

But I agree with Mr. Gargan to a degree. This is not going to address the need to recognize fully the custom adoption that has always been with the native people, Inuit and Dene. I also recognize that Bill 2 is going to make things easier for potential parents and for natural parents, especially when many times natural parents don't know where their children are when they are adopted, in some cases. In this case, Mr. Chairman, in the birth registration form, it will state where the natural parents were and where the adoptive parents are. It will make it that much easier, some time in the future, when the natural parents

want to see their children who have been adopted, Mr. Chairman.

We have heard many a case where people were frustrated, parents and parents to be, when their adopted children are not even named after the adoptive parents. I know many a case where the adoptive parents look after the adopted children as their own. In fact, they were frustrated because they didn't have their own name as being part of that family, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, for the time being, I don't see any other mechanism to address the need of the native people at this point in time. I think this is a good beginning. Once we have the Nunavut government, we will find another process to address the real needs of the people of Nunavut. For the time being, we are moving one step forward. In that regard, Mr. Chairman, I welcome Bill 2. Thank you.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan. The custom adoption was different from the regular procedure and I would like to thank him very much for raising this issue. With regard to this particular bill, I have misgivings about it and I have very good feelings about it.

Aboriginal custom adoption should be recognized. The aboriginal people have a custom to adopt, but they have never used the regular procedure to adopt. To this day, they don't know how to use the law to adopt a child.

Today, they have a problem in using the legal system to adopt. There are many who have not been registered who are already grown up. They cannot receive a social security number, especially the ones who have been adopted. Under this particular bill, they will be able to get registered and will be recognized. We know that in the future, the custom adoption will keep going and will continue. I have two adopted children. Using the custom adoption procedure, I adopted these two children. There are many people who have adopted children, using their own custom adoption. Even some non-aboriginal people use custom adoption. I think it would be much better to help people who are adopting children, especially today.

Since family break-up is quite frequent and young people get divorced, sometimes their children are left behind. They have to be adopted somehow. For that reason, I will support this and am thankful that it has been tabled at this time and know it is going to be useful to our people who adopt children. For the last time, I would like to thank the Member for Deh Cho. Thank you.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Clause By Clause