Thank you very much for the question. I think it's so important that we don't lose sight of the individual community members who are struggling.
I've been receiving emails and phone calls from people from coast to coast to coast. This isn't relegated to one part of the country; this is an issue that is happening across the country in terms of the amount of stress that families are under.
I have had, for example, an email from a single mother out in B.C. who has two children with disabilities. She is on B.C. disability assistance and received the CERB because she lost hours of work. She received a letter last September to say that she needs to provide more information or she will have to pay it back. The amount of stress has led her to suicidal ideation.
This is a theme that I have heard from almost every person who has contacted me. I had a senior contact me from the Northwest Territories. She has been rendered homeless because her GIS payments have been reduced. She is sleeping in her car, and she is a senior in the Northwest Territories.
I have heard from people in Nova Scotia who have been forced to sell their businesses because they're not able to maintain their B & B. They don't have enough money. They've been kicked off their GIS. All their GIS has been clawed back in the recalculation. She is living on just over $1,000 a month, and that makes her ineligible for a provincial financial support program because she's not making less than $1,000. She's making somewhere just above the $1,000 a month. There is nowhere in this country that this is an income that can allow you to pay your rent, pay for medication, pay for food and support your family.
This is causing so much stress to the most vulnerable people in our communities. We cannot continue to let these folks fall through the cracks in our systems.