Okay. Well, if I might, I will address the second part first.
You're absolutely right: we are trying to establish an attachment to the labour force, because this is to be income replacement to a degree. If we were to go just with hours, that would not be compatible with the eligibility of self-employed workers who have opted into the EI system. Their eligibility for EI special benefits is based on financial figures, on dollars earned, because we cannot measure their hours. There's no way to validate that. To make sure that self-employed workers would also be able to participate in this program, we had to use the only number that is used in their calculation of eligibility. We basically translated the hours required into dollars. It works out to about $6,300 in round numbers. So we have one standard of entry, one threshold for the employed and the self-employed. We had to make sure that everyone who is eligible for special benefits could have the same threshold.
In terms of the grant for the murdered and missing, that was pegged as being close to...but the difference is that the grant is fixed, whereas the dollar figure for the critically ill and sickness benefits is determined on a common threshold that is indexed. There's a difference there, but that's why—so that we could include the self-employed in that as well.
In terms of the age requirement, we had a lot of discussion around this with a wide range of stakeholders. The conclusion was—especially after our discussions with the medical community—that the normal definition of child is up to 18. After that you're considered an adult. It was the dependency factor in terms of emotional dependency and emotional maturity. I know with some disabled there is a difference there, but a lot of these cases tend to involve very young children, and the emotional needs are much greater there than they are with someone who is still in school but maybe in their mid-twenties. The emotional dependency, the need for the security and comfort of having a parent there 24 hours a day, is quite different than it is for an adult. As we discussed earlier, the needs of a parent one is caring for, the emotional need and the emotional dependency on the person providing care, are not the same as those of a child. That was the main determinant. There was a lot of discussion around this.
One of the options was to put it at 16, which the medical community usually considers to be the limit of being a child. But we decided there were many circumstances in which, because of the emotional maturity or the dependency, we should go up to 18. So we decided that we wanted to take maximum benefit. After 18 in most jurisdictions you're considered an adult. Therefore, that was the deciding line.