First of all, has there been a spike because of the pandemic? The answer is yes. Remember, Michelle, that Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro made two billion dollars' worth of profit last year. When is enough, enough? What's with the justification that increasing wages will have a negative impact on the price of food? One could argue that if they only made $1 billion instead of $2 billion, they could lower the price of food. These costs shouldn't be maintained on the backs of workers.
I raised a question and made a comment about the CERB. There are part-time workers who are working in two or three stores, getting minimum hours. Some workers would have made more money, frankly, sitting at home collecting $500 a week than working for a little over minimum wage for 15 hours a week. It's simple math. Did companies give a $2 pay increase for honourable reasons? They would publicly say so, but there's no question that in the back of their minds they were thinking, “How many of our employees will stay home and be better off?”
Those are the things that have to be taken into account, but as I said earlier on, Michelle, I think first of all the federal government should come out with a living minimum wage and put pressure on the provinces to follow suit.