Absolutely. Thank you for the question.
In fact, I had one CARP member speak to me specifically about that one point. She was not poorly off but was recently widowed and did not have any CPP to rely on and her husband did not have a pension. So she was relying entirely on her OAS and she wasn't at the point where she was going to have to depend on GIS. However, she was having difficulty making ends meet, and I said, “Well, what would you like to happen?” She said, “If you increase the OAS, it gets clawed back anyway as you reach the higher income levels.” But it would immediately help her and the exact situation you have described.
When I talk about substantial, I think it's important to see how OAS rates have compared with the general standard of living. The numbers, if I can get them quickly, indicate that compared to the general standard of living, the OAS has actually fallen in relation to that. So the base benefit itself is falling in relation to what it should be against the general standard of living. So we would be talking about a significant increase of that, in the range of 10% or more, just to get back on track with providing adequate incomes for those who need it, because, remember, it's clawed back at the other end.
In order to specifically target those people who absolutely need it, it would be the GIS.