Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. I've worked with Bonnie for six years.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. It's my understanding.... I'll admit that until we were invited to do this presentation I didn't know a lot about the court challenges program. I did work with a lady from Regina who chaired the court challenges program. With a lot of assistance from her, we were able to put this together.

Canadian Heritage committee  Her name was Bonnie Morton.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to talk about the people I work with in my community and about the people from NAPO at the local, provincial, and national levels. The concern about all of these cuts is that poverty is at an all-time high right now. All these cuts are being made to social development programs, programs that poor people can access, programs that help people build self-esteem and self-confidence and move forward.

Canadian Heritage committee  From my perspective and from the perspective of the groups I work with, coming from the low-income sector, there would be no lawyers. If we wanted to access the courts, the court challenges program would be the only way we could do it, especially if it was a federal issue like child tax or legal civil services.

Canadian Heritage committee  No.

Canadian Heritage committee  To what extent were consultations made with our group?

Canadian Heritage committee  There was none that I'm aware of. It just seemed that all of a sudden there was an announcement that all these cuts were being made.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. We didn't have a chance to get a briefing out to the committee, but we do have a package here; we brought 25 of them that can be passed around. It also includes my speaking notes. First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this hearing to discuss the court challenges program.

Finance committee  What we mean by that is low-income citizens in a lot of our banks are not allowed to open accounts. A lot of people don't have proper ID. A lot of banks ask for a $5 deposit. People don't have that. So banks are turning people away. We actually did a survey about that in Saskatoon and we had people go into the banks simply to see how many banks would turn them away.

Finance committee  I think the responsibility for them is provincial, but federal programs are needed that are sustainable for everybody, that are consistent for all provinces, all children, and all adults.

Finance committee  We can submit a copy of the recommendations. We have that at the office, so I can make sure that's submitted.

Finance committee  I'm not sure I can answer this as clearly as you would like. I think my first piece of advice--I did have some recommendations, but I forgot to read them--would be to develop a national anti-poverty program. If there were more funding put into social programs, for instance, if we took social programs and indexed them to the cost of living, it would decrease government costs in other ways.

Finance committee  Sorry. I could go on forever.