Can anyone help me with this?
You mentioned three people and they all have different circumstances.
http://www.pptc.gc.ca/passports/vital_stats_e.asp
Vital statistics will help your mom get a fresh birth certificate. Info is listed by province with contact numbers.
If your mom was born on Canadian soil, she's a citizen. Assuming her birthplace is listed on her birth certificate then that's her proof of citizenship.
Your mother should need only her birth certificate:
Plus she needs a person whose profession is one of those shown on a list of professions in the application form (such as doctor, lawyer, accountant, notary publid) to certify that he or she has known your mom for two years or more. That person will also have to certify her passport photo. As a notary public I have done this many times. On a few occasions the passport office had called me back to confirm what I had written.
Plus there is a new requirement that two other people (such as neighbors) have to certify that they have known her for more than two years. There are spaces on the application form for their names and signatures.
I found the people in the passoprt office in Scarborough to be very helpful in response to phone inquiries and when attending the office so if she is in doubt about anything she should phone or go to the local passport office. This is probably in the federal building in her city.
If there is a need to get the passport quickly, she should personally take it to the passport office where they can review it in her presence and take her fee payment. The passport should then be ready for her to pick up within a few days.