Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I rise today to raise a number of points and concerns I have about the whole issue of custom adoption. Madam Speaker, I feel that over the last 20 years, the entire concept of custom adoption has changed. Natives all across Canada have lost sight of the traditional reasons for the practice of custom adoption. Custom adoption, in the past, was for survival as a people. Children were adopted to ensure that they would live and grow strong. When people couldn't look after their children or they had too many children to feed or a parent died, the practice of custom adoption existed as an option for the well being of the children.

Madam Speaker, I feel that custom adoption is a collective right and not an individual one. When I say this, I mean that the practice of custom adoption has become a matter of convenience for a lot of people. It has become a way, in some cases, for people to circumvent taking responsibility for their actions. Teen pregnancies and unwed mothers are a fact of life in the Northwest Territories and, indeed, the rest of Canada. Where are the fathers of these children? Why do they not take responsibilities? I know why, Madam Speaker, it is because they know that someone in the family will take the child. I know of grandparents who believe in the traditional custom, living on a fixed income, who adopt their grandchildren's children. They might be fine when a child is an infant, when they are small and do not require as much room. But, Madam Speaker, children grow. They need room and invariably people age. The grandparents can keep up to an infant or toddler, but cannot keep up with a 10 year old.

I also have concerns, Madam Speaker, that when these children reach their teens that they sometimes end up being the prime care givers to their aging adoptive parents. This, I fear, is not...(Microphone turned off)...upon any teenagers.

Madam Speaker, I would like to get unanimous consent to conclude my statement.