The first of several planeloads of Haitian orphans will land in Canada starting on Saturday to begin their new lives with Canadian families.

Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced Friday that Canada now has Haitian approval to bring in 154 adoptees, including 86 children whose files already have final approval from the provinces.

It is hoped that the remainder will soon be cleared as well, and some Quebec parents expressed impatience as they met Social Services Minister Lise Theriault Friday to discuss the matter.

They wanted to know where their files stand and how soon their children will be taken out of the earthquake zone.

Prospective parent Remy Fortin, who has been waiting more than two years for his child, was concerned about safety.

"A lot of hours are slipping right now," he told CTV's Tarah Schwartz.

"Every hour that's going on wasted in meetings and speeches is unacceptable to us."

He said the Netherlands and the United States have already united children and their adoptive parents, and he called on Canada to get the flights off the ground immediately.

Challenge

But a logistical challenge remains - it will prove difficult to get children from Haitian orphanages to planes at Toussaint l'Ouverture Airport in Port-au-Prince.

The only runway at the airport was damaged in the 7.0-magnitude quake that leveled the capital last week, killing an estimated 200,000 people.

Warning

Meanwhile, several children's aid groups are urging Ottawa not to be in a hurry to encourage Canadians to adopt earthquake-scarred Haitian children separated from their parents.

The program co-ordinator for SOS Children's Villages says all efforts should be made to find the missing parents of any Haitian kids before they are sent to Canada -- a process that could take at least one year.

"The No. 1 reason is that they are not confirmed orphans,'' Kelsey Lemon said in an interview.

"Right now they are what we call 'unaccompanied children', so they may have extended family, relatives around that just haven't been able to reach them yet.

"Their parents may be alive in a hospital somewhere.''

Lemon was talking specifically about children who have lost contact with their parents since the Jan. 12 earthquake -- and not those who had already been approved for adoption in Canada.

Peter Dudding, executive-director of the Child Welfare League of Canada, says the average number of orphans at any one time in Haiti prior to the tragedy was about 300,000.

It's estimated the number will grow to one million.