What I said was they are at risk of being poor because they have to wait a long period of time--10 years--in order to be eligible for OAS and GIS. Certainly in the city of Toronto there are a number of older parents who have been brought into this country to do child care, and then their families, unfortunately, have not paid or supported them the way they ought to. Many of them have ended up in the social housing units provided for low-income seniors in metropolitan Toronto.
I had this information from what was then the community services of metropolitan Toronto. We are still hearing it from people who are dealing with low-income people who have come as seniors, as immigrants, into the country.
Unfortunately, families sometimes can't keep supporting their seniors. They've become unemployed. So there's a huge issue for that almost hidden group of poor who really fall between the cracks. We have a concern about them because they're not easily identified. The communities are not known. It's really difficult, so communities I work with in the poverty groups are saying we have to start thinking about these people. They're on our doorsteps. There's little we can do for them.
That's where I'm coming from.