B.C. Adoption /

Speaker, I have the honour of submitting the report B. C. Adoption and Permanency Options Update, December 2017, a follow-up to Finding Forever Families: A Review of the Provincial Adoption System, to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. [...] Clerk of the Legislative Assembly Introduction Introduction In June 2014, the Representative for Children and Youth issued a report entitled Finding Forever Families: A Review of the Provincial Adoption System. [...] The report showed that, at any given time, more than 1,000 British Columbia children and youth in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) were waiting to be adopted. [...] The 84 adoption placements in the first six months of this fiscal year also lag far behind the totals of 149 and 104 placements in the first half of fiscal 2015/16 and 2016/17, respectively. [...] This is of particular concern to the Representative as it is contrary to existing policy and standards that call for placement of Indigenous children and youth in Indigenous homes.