According to the Financial Post (Dec.20, 2011), the Conference Board of Canada – an important not-for-profit applied research organization – is now “calling for a renewed look at the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI)” in Canada. In a Commentary, the Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of the board, Glen Hodgson, writes that “there are three main advantages to a GAI. First, it would address poverty directly, and in a neutral fashion, via transfers provided through a single existing administrative system—the income tax system. (…) Second, a properly-designed GAI could reduce the “welfare wall” of high marginal tax rates on earned income for the working poor. (…) And third, a GAI could reduce health care spending on low-income persons.” Hodgson also refers to the study on MINCOME (a basic income experiment which was conducted in the province of Manitoba in the 1970s) which was recently published by Evelyn Forget (in Canadian Public Policy, September 2011). His conclusion sounds optimistic: “While deeper analysis would be needed to underpin the policy debate, a guaranteed annual income remains an appealing “big idea” whose time has yet to arrive politically. There is no better time than right now to heat up the debate.”
Financial Post article: click here
To read the Commentary by Glen Hodgson: click here
