That's a good question. I spent 20 hours going through the impact of that exact issue because I was recalculating the living wage for this report.
Yes, absolutely. Just to illustrate that, when Medicine Hat initially took on poverty work back in 2012, I believe the living wage calculation was $13 per hour. Obviously, when we recalculated for today, in 2017, it was $13.65, so it went up 65¢ an hour. Seriously, we put in all this work and it went up 65¢? What are we going to tell the community? The whole point was to make a case. It was even less than the minimum wage that was being proposed at $15. When we looked a little bit deeper as to why that was, it was because of the impact of that benefit being introduced six months into last year. Without that benefit, the living wage would have been closer to $15 per hour versus $13. You've effectively ruined the argument for a living wage in Medicine Hat because of that benefit, but it shows you how important it is.
Now, that's for children. If you look at singles, obviously, that benefit is not visible.