Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is Foster Family Week and I’d like to follow my colleague’s direction and thank the foster families of the Northwest Territories.

Foster families provide children with love and support all year, every year. This is truly a gift to the children and to the future of our Territory.

We heard the compassion and dedication behind this gift from many of the foster parents during the Social Programs committee’s review of the Child and Family Services Act. Some foster parents take children into their homes for short stays, but some for much longer. Some foster parents are part of the children’s extended family. They are filling a great need in the Northwest Territories and new foster families are always in demand from a range of cultural backgrounds.

In Yellowknife there are more than 3 percent of children in foster care. That’s a shocking number when you think about it. That’s the 2009 figure from our local health and social services authority. In the Northwest Territories there are more than 600 children in care, including more than 200 in permanent custody. Not all are in foster care, but most are. This shows great needs and great problems that we face in all of our communities.

We are, indeed, lucky to have so many families who open their homes and their hearts to the children in need. We are lucky to have foster parents who help the kids with their schoolwork and get them involved in sports, take them hunting and show them healthy love and respect.

From all accounts, fostering is both rewarding and challenging, and I would like to once again take this opportunity to thank the many foster parents in the Northwest Territories for their continued dedication and support of our children.