by Kate McFarland | Apr 6, 2016 | News
Since March 2016, the food bank Winnipeg Harvest has been advocating for a basic income, which it hopes to be a central issue in the Manitoba provincial election to be held on April 19th. Executive director David Northcott believes that the policy should be considered as a way to mitigate the effects of rising food prices.
Reporter Jill Coubrough quotes Northcott as saying, “After 30 years of dealing with the crisis of people needing emergency food, we are calling on the entire community to consider a completely new approach,” referring to a basic income guarantee.
Winnipeg Harvest’s support for a basic income is shared by the new lobby group Basic Income Manitoba, the Green Party of Manitoba, and the Manitoba Liberals.
References:
Jill Coubrough, “Winnipeg Harvest among groups pushing for basic income for Manitobans,” 18 March 2016, CBC News.
“Food bank makes push for guaranteed minimum incomes,” 18 March 2016, Winnipeg Sun.
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by Karl Widerquist | Apr 2, 2016 | News
A Forum Research poll, released March 26th, reveals that support for a basic income has increased in the Canadian province of Ontario.
According to the report, “In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll among 1225 Ontario voters, the plurality, 4-in-10, approve of an Ontario basic income to replace social assistance and other provincial support payments (41%). One third disapprove of the idea (33%) and as many as a quarter have no opinion (26%).”
According to the Huffington Post, approval of Basic Income in Ontario has risen from 27 to 41 percent since 2012 and disapproval has dropped from 39 to 31 percent so that a plurality now supports basic income (the rest being unsure).
Some of the articles below (e.g. Huffington Post) include comparisons to previous polls.
References and Reports:
Forum Research, “Plurality approves of basic income” The Forum Poll, March 30, 2016
Daniel Tencer “Approval For Basic Income Jumps In Ontario.” The Huffington Post Canada, 03/30/2016
Andrew Russell. “Support for guaranteed minimum income rises in Ontario, poll finds.” Global News, March 30, 2016
Robert Benzi. “Ontarians warming to guaranteed minimum income, poll suggests.” The Toronto Star. Mar 30 2016
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa, left, delivers the Ontario 2016 budget next to Premier Kathleen Wynne, right, at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Thursday, February 25, 2016. -THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette via Global News
by Joe Timothy | Apr 1, 2016 | News
Over the last 12 months, the debate around basic income has seemingly gained interest by the week. Nations throughout the world — including Finland, Switzerland, France and Holland, among others — are currently exploring this policy as a solution to a plethora of different problems, in some cases even planning full-blown pilot studies. Recently, Canada has joined this list of nations ready to test a basic income. In 2016, since the election of the liberal Justin Trudeau, news has been streaming out of Canada about the adoption of basic income initiatives in various regions of the country — so many that we have decided to helpfully summarise the key news stories for you to consume in one go.
First, in the last few weeks, there has been a mountain of articles about the proposed implementation of a pilot study of basic income in Ontario, Canada. The idea of working towards developing a pilot study was announced in the 2016 budget statement. Few details were released at the time. It was stated that “the government will work with communities, researchers and other stakeholders” to develop a project into basic income. The statement also said that “The pilot project will test a growing view at home and abroad that a basic income could build on the success of minimum wage policies and increases in child benefits by providing more consistent and predictable support in the context of today’s dynamic labour market.”
A strategy to reduce poverty and expand the safety net
This push in Ontario towards a basic income is part of a larger strategy “to reduce poverty and expand the safety net”. Accompanying this initiative is a plan to give free university places to low income students. The Ontario government is also concerned with the precarious nature of the modern job market. They stated that there is a growing need for “consistent and predictable” support for working people. Ben Schiller, in Co.exist, wrote that “In Canada, temporary and part-time employment grew twice as fast as full-time work between 1997 and 2015.” It is within this environment that the Ontario government feel a basic income could be a good solution to help their communities.
In addition to the initiative in Ontario, it has also been noted that François Blais has been appointed as the minister of employment and social solidarity in the province of Quebec. Blais’ long term support for basic income has lead to speculation that Quebec may follow Ontario’s lead and look into adopting it as a policy. Schiller also pointed out that this idea has already received support, “Quebec Prime Minister Philippe Couillard says a basic income could simplify the welfare system and encourage work among benefit claimants.”
With the well known Manitoba trails of Minicome (a variant on basic income) in 1970’s, Canada is already an integral part of the history of basic income. However, when the Minicome program was cancelled, its results were filed away, and little was done over the following decades to try to understand the value of such a policy. But now, with the upsurge in interest in the last few years, we find Canada at the forefront of the basic income movement yet again. It is going to be fascinating to watch what comes out of this country over the coming months and see if this time a basic income is here to stay.
Olivia Goldhill, “Ontario, Canada announced a plan to test Universal Basic Income for all citizens”, Quartz, March 8th, 2016
Shane Ferro, “Canada Is About To Start Giving Away Free Money”, The Huffington Post, March 9th, 2016
Jack Smith IV, “Canada Will Experiment With Basic Income — Giving Out Salaries Just for Being Human”, Tech.Mic, March 7th, 2016
Ben Schiller, “Ontario Is The Latest Place To Test A Basic-Income Guarantee”, Co.Exist, March 2nd, 2016
Ashley Cowburn, “Canadian province Ontario plans to trial universal basic income”, The Independent, March 7th, 2016
Chris Weller, “Canada plans to experiment with giving people unconditional free money”, Tech Insider, March 4th, 2016
by Andre Coelho | Mar 20, 2016 | News
Jenna van Draanen. Credit to: The Big Picture.
The Big Picture, the American political news show hosted by Thom Hatmann, has taken an interest in basic income. That interest was spurred by the situation in Canada, where new tests of basic income are being planned, and materialized in inviting Jenna Van Draanen, secretary from the board of directors of Basic Income Canada Network, to the program. The conversation starts with a general description of the Ontario’s recent proposal of a basic income trial, passing through a rough comparison with the Alaska Permanent Fund. Jenna underscores basic income’s potential advantages, such as simplicity, debureaucratization, freedom of choice, empowerment (especially for the poor) and savings in social programs.
More information at:
The Big Picture, “Universal Basic Income has begun” – interview with Jenna Van Draanen
by Josh Martin | Mar 18, 2016 | News
In this piece, McCracken discusses how increased food costs disproportionately hurt the poorest citizens. Acknowledging that many argue for a basic income to address this issue, McCracken believes that a more comprehensive response is needed.
Molly McCracken, “Fight food insecurity with income”
