This is slightly beside your question, but closing the different offices means that I have to support my sister speaking on behalf of aboriginal women, and I do so most emphatically. The national council has been very much dismayed with the long and repeated delays in raising conditions of life and standards of living for aboriginal women. We are very much aware that this particular lack cannot be addressed, unless the government is repeatedly reminded of what the actual situation for these women is. There is absolutely no way any group, never mind women already living well below the poverty line, the cut-off line, wherever they are, can access the government when the offices are so distant.
I think the department and the minister should be reminded that there is a large population of aboriginal women in western Canada with one single office. If the staff is reduced, there will be great delays for them in getting replies to their questions. As concerns groups like the National Council of Women that have never been funded and given core funding at all by the department and have always lived off our own dues--we lived on a shoestring and we continue to live on a shoestring--we find that the restrictions in the program will seriously inhibit our ability to even apply for project funding, because what we do is try to do some research, some public opinion evaluations within our large membership, and come back with recommendations that are advocacy to the government. We're not allowed to do that and we will not be allowed to get funding for our only purpose in existing. It calls into question the good intentions of the government, in our opinion.