Time To Attach

Support families formed by adoption, kinship, and customary care for the right to equal parental leave!

Time to Attach is national campaign to add 15 weeks of Attachment Leave Employment Insurance Benefits for adoptive parents, kinship and customary caregivers.

Canada's parental benefit system allocates a longer paid leave to biological parents (50 weeks) than to adoptive parents, kinship, and customary caregivers (35 weeks). We are calling on the Canadian government for equality in parental leave benefits. AFABC has partnered with other adoption organizations across Canada to support this campaign. 

Now we need your help. 

For families formed through adoption, kinship, or customary care, the transition period is critical to creating strong family bonds, and having enough time to attach can improve long-term outcomes.

Did you know that most children adopted in Canada are over the age of ten at the time of placement and many have a history of trauma or serious loss? Having their new parents or caregivers at home longer, in the critical first year, gives children and youth time to form attachments and begin processing their grief and loss, and may help reduce placement breakdowns later.

For this reason, we want to draw attention to a private member's bill (Bill C-318) that was brought to the House of Commons this month. The bill seeks to introduce an attachment benefit of 15 weeks for adoptive parents and parents of children conceived through surrogacy. 

This is an exciting step towards equality in parental leave benefits! But there's still a long way to go before the bill can become law.

How you can help

We need to raise our voices in unison to tell our Ministers and MPs we need their support for Bill C-318.

Here’s what you can do to support this campaign:

• Please sign and share the new petition for Bill C-318 and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
• If you have a story to share, create a video (60 seconds or less) or a blog post (500 words or less) about your experience during the early days of your adoption. Focus on how a 15-week attachment leave would have helped you and your family. Tag us on social media!

• If you don’t have a story to share, take some time to learn more about the need for attachment leave and the experiences shared by families in support of the Time To Attach campaign.

You can read some of the stories the community has shared with us here.

Let’s do our part to hold the federal government to their election promise to support ALL families!

The Time To Attach campaign is led by Adopt4Life, the Adoption Council of Ontario, and Western University in partnership with Adoption Options, the Child and Youth Permanency Council of Ontario, the Evermore Centre, and the Adoptive Families Association of BC (that's us!).