Thank you for bringing that up, especially since it was the last item in my presentation and I ran out of time before I could get to it.
I don't know what the scales are in each province, but in Quebec, when someone receives the maximum Guaranteed Income Supplement benefit and is now able to reach the low-income cutoff level for Canada thanks to the top-up that was recently introduced, that person no longer qualifies for free legal aid because they have hit that threshold. Actually, people can access legal aid through a contribution that can be as much as $800. People don't have that kind of money. When your income is $1,100 a month, you pay for your rent, your medication and the necessities, but you don't go out and you certainly can't afford to see a lawyer.
Even when people call us to report a situation, we tell them they need to see a lawyer. In some areas of the law, it is not enough just to file a complaint with police; you really have to go through a lawyer to assert your rights. But these people cannot even do that.
Thank you for your question. You raised an excellent point.