We've actually been writing to all elected members since the summertime, when seniors first opened the GIS cheque or got a letter that surprised them to say, you don't have GIS this year, or your GIS has been drastically reduced. Seniors have been going since June of last year without that supplemental income and these are—as you all are well aware—the lowest-income seniors. They're the most vulnerable in our communities. They are people who are over 65, who've worked hard their whole lives, who are still forced to work even though they should be retiring. They're in precarious, low-wage jobs where they're serving our coffee or giving us advice in the grocery stores or the home gardening stores.
They didn't have income supports to fall back on. They didn't have something in their bank accounts that they could fall back on. They have been trying to make ends meet since last summer. Over time it is getting worse and worse, and for months now I have been receiving calls and emails in desperation from people who have been evicted in the middle of this winter, living in their cars in the Northwest Territories. There's somebody in Nova Scotia who sold her small business to try to get extra money, and then was taxed and didn't end up with anything extra. There are people who have been sending me their doctors' prescriptions for their medication. They have $1,300 a month to live on right now, and they've got these prescriptions and they can't afford their medications. There are others who are emailing me about their neighbours, one of whom has committed suicide and another lost their life because they couldn't access medication. Our partners who work in food banks are seeing people they've never seen before. Seniors are moving in with their adult children and putting pressure on those families, who are raising their own children.
Other legal clinic partners are accompanying seniors in online rent tribunals where seniors are being evicted over Zoom calls. This is devastating. What is happening in our communities is devastating, and it's happening in your ridings across the country. It's such a deep issue and a small amount of the budget. If there was an immediate emergency payment of $2,500, in the same way that CERB was released quickly.... These people are in the system. The money is earmarked. When they're calling me and asking me when the money is coming and why it hasn't come yet, I don't have an answer, because I really don't know.