by Ashley | Jul 28, 2017 | News
Pictured: Sam Haque, founder of Wise Media, social entrepreneur in Canada. Credit to: Steve Russell, Toronto Star
Mowat Centre Report shows how basic income can be a transformative support network for social entrepreneurs to solve society’s deeply entrenched issues. An online platform could help do this. Of course, HostiServer the best for websites trying to project a strong online presence could be useful. Moreover, the report suggests a thriving social mission ecosystem can be an outcome of basic income that be integrated and measured in ongoing pilots.
Canada is one of many countries leading the world in the new stage of paradigm shift politics by piloting universal basic income in its communities. Anchor institutions have been weighing in on special topics for researchers to consider as basic income pilot projects are ongoing. For example, University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre recently published a report titled, Basic Income Examining the Potential Impact of a Basic Income on Social Entrepreneurs. Authors Michael Urban and Christine Yip highlight the three main pathways basic income may impact social entrepreneurs, including by:
- “Reducing barriers to entry into social entrepreneurship, thereby helping create a more diverse and representative social entrepreneurship community.
- Enabling social entrepreneurs to build their organizations and their own capacities by adding to and improving their skill sets.
- Helping to protect social entrepreneurs against illness and provide the psychological space required for social innovation to occur by reducing individuals’ financial stress and anxiety”
A basic income could help derisk social entrepreneurship “for those whose life circumstances have reduced their ability to absorb the potential downsides of risk-taking.” Poverty as a whole costs Canada between $72 billion and $84 billion annually. A snapshot of experiences of historically marginalized populations in Canada include:
- Indigenous Peoples (including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples) are overrepresented among the population of people experiencing homeless in Canada
- The United Nations has called housing and homelessness a national emergency in Canada
- The cost of socioeconomic disparities in the healthcare system account for 20% of all healthcare spending
- One third of food bank users were children in 2016
- 20% of families of color are experiencing poverty compared to 5% of white families
- All seniors receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement live below the most basic standard of living in Canada calculated at $18,000 per year, whereas seniors receive about $17,000 per year
While precarious employment has increased by 50% in Canada over the past two decades, Mowat Centre posits that universal basic income can empower historically marginalized people to be social entrepreneurs. More importantly, the report suggests empowering this population is particularly important as they can use their lived experience with some of society’s most deeply entrenched social issues to recommend new models of living that are more sustainable and equitable for future generations.
Due to these new policy and economic structures supported by social entrepreneurs, this would lead to a paradigm shift in social interactions that would introduce new ways of thinking and co-existing:
“A basic income could help to shift society from a system where an individual’s worth is determined by the amount of money they earn to one where individuals earn esteem through the ways they choose to use the money to which everyone is automatically entitled. When conceived in this basic way, a basic income represents a validation of every individual’s inherent worth and, by extension, a validation of and support for their freedom to choose the life path that they see as most appropriate for them and the contributions they make to society in doing so.”
By helping to potentially further support role models and community leaders making positive impacts in their neighborhoods, a basic income is able to make social entrepreneurship a more appealing and viable career path. This may attract a critical mass of people to integrating principles of social entrepreneurship into their ways of living, beyond their career. A basic income can help sustain social entrepreneurship by providing financial protection from unexpected losses in income. Another positive effect is bolstering the holistic health and wellness of a social entrepreneur by reducing stress and anxiety created by financial insecurity and instability. Chronic stress and anxiety can lead to chronic illnesses such as depression, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes among others. Living with anything like this can be hard for anyone, especially if they are not sure how to deal with it. It then comes as no surprise to find that some people may have checked out sites similar to https://www.canadacannabisdispensary.co/product-category/edibles/ (as medical marijuana products are known to have relaxing properties) in the hopes of finding alternative ways of managing how they are feeling.
Particularly among historically marginalized populations, these chronic illnesses are disproportionately prevalent, which adds to how, under the current structure, they experience increased barriers to social entrepreneurship. By alleviating these stressors, a basic income could be a pathway in healing historical trauma and inequities between classes of people. It could also allow people to access options like CBD pills without worrying as much about the potential finances.
However, the Mowat Centre also mentioned a list of outcomes from a basic income that social entrepreneurs and ongoing pilots should consider to create the necessary supports to ensure this social ecosystem can thrive:
- Allocate additional resources from basic income to expanding sufficient support system for social entrepreneurship to ensure accessibility to career pathway and mitigate amount of well-intentioned, but ultimately unproductive business models and innovations
- Consider incentives for cross-sector partnerships in social entrepreneurship to prepare the broader political, economic, and social infrastructure in communities to absorb the potential increase in effort by empowered social entrepreneurs to fulfill their missions
- Ensure sufficient accountability mechanisms through adoption of universal impact measurement practice, training/coaching, and peer-mentoring for social entrepreneurs to achieve quality and standard metrics that are customized to their business model to support the monitoring of outcomes and social impact
- Consider social entrepreneur wage and labor policies to ensure equity between employer, employees and volunteers
- Consider ongoing measurement of social impact in the field based on lived experience of historically marginalized populations to ensure that basic income is not assumed to have solved social issues like poverty or barriers to social mobility, but rather there are metrics to offer ongoing evaluation of status of social issues to inform innovations
More information at:
American Psychological Association, “Understanding chronic stress,” July 2017
Canada Without Poverty, “Just the Facts,” July 2017
Laurie Monsebraaten, “Basic income hailed as way to give people chance to chase their dreams,” Toronto Star, 25th May 2017
Michael Crawford Urban and Christine Yip, “Basic Impact: Examining the Potential Impact of a Basic Income on Social Entrepreneurs,” Mowat Centre, May 2017
by Andre Coelho | Jul 23, 2017 | News
John Horgan and Andrew Weaver. Credit to: British Columbia New Democratic Party.
Since the 30th of May 2017 that British Columbia (BC) political parties NDP (New Democratic Party) and Greens have an agreement signed to collaborate in the present regional legislature, which can be read in the NDP webpage. This comes after an historical regional election process which saw the end of the Liberal Party majority in BC, held since 2001.
This event is also relevant because the unprecedented agreement refers basic income as part of its agenda. At the end of its Section 3 – Policy Initiatives, under the subtitle “Making life more affordable”, it can be read: “One aspect of the poverty reduction strategy is to design and implement a basic income pilot to test weather giving people a basic income is an effective way to reduce poverty, improve health, housing and employment.”
Other issues covered by the agreement are the maintenance and improvement of public services (mainly health and education), rolling out of environmental protection policies such as expanding the polluting emissions tax and measures to set better democratic mechanisms in BC. It becomes clear from this general political party agreement that basic income is a part of a broad set of policies which aim at improving British Columbians lives, while protecting the environment and established public services.
More information at:
Rob Shaw, “NDP, Greens take aim at Kinder Morgan, Site C in power-sharing deal”, The Province, May 29th 2017
by BIEN | Jul 1, 2017 | News
Hamilton, Canada. Credit to: CBC.
As reported before, the majority of the Ontario’s citizens support a basic income, but they want a pilot project. However, most think $17,000 (CAD) is insufficient to meet the basic needs of most citizens.
There was a poll by Campaign Research done on 1,969 people with 53% of people supporting the plan for a basic income. Young people, aged 18 to 24, were the most supportive age group at 59%.
Lars Osberg, professor of economics at Dalhousie University, said the poll was possibly inaccurate with, for example, the Atlantic Canada (63% support for the plan) sample at only 198 people. Liberals (62%) and NDP (63%) were the most supportive.
The pilot project has 4,000 people from three areas: Hamilton, Lindsay, and Thunder Bay. It emphasizes citizens with low incomes. Couples will get $24,027; singles will receive $16,989.
The first experiment will run one year without conditions. The reason for the experiment is to see if the basic income provisions will improve life quality and job prospects.
Osberg noted that the youth are the unemployed or the underemployed, generally, and that the basic income does not disincentivize work. Osberg thinks the basic income would not disincentive work, as some fear.
More information at:
Jack Hauen, “Majority support Ontario’s basic income plan, but many find $17,000 not enough: poll”, Financial Times, May 17th 2017
Eli Yufest, “Majority approves of Ontario’s basic income plan, many find $17,000 per year too little an amount“, Campaign Research, May 16th 2017
by Andre Coelho | Jun 29, 2017 | News
Picture credit to: CBC Halmilton.
The basic income pilot project is being rolled out in Ontario, Canada. The localities selected for this trial are Thunder Bay and Hamilton, at present, with Lindsay getting started later this fall. Randomly selected individuals, with ages between 18 and 64 years old, are receiving information packages about the basic income project, so they can choose to participate or not.
A basic income trial has been on the forge for some time in Ontario, having been reported in several occasions and with the support of the Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Lindsay mayors. With an overall cost of CAN$ 50 million per year and a running period of three years, the test program is designed to cover 4000 households. The trial’s random selection of participants is not limited to the urban parts of these localities, but also some of their rural territory.
The program is specifically aimed at people with low incomes and has a few conditions for eligibility (Thunder Bay case), such as having lived in the region for more than 12 months and some income-related thresholds, as shown in the following table:
| Individual status |
Earning less than, CAN $ |
| Single |
33978 |
| Couple |
48054 |
| Single, with disability |
45978 |
| Couple, one with disability |
60054 |
| Couple, both with disability |
72054 |
Being a voluntary-based basic income program trial (unlike the Finish one), people receiving the enrollment packages get up to a month to decide whether they wish to participate or not. However, participation will entail further involvement in research and survey, as part of the trial.
There has already been an information roundtable about the basic income pilot project in Hamilton, on the 2nd of June. The pilot project has randomly assigned 1000 selections in Hamilton, which amounts for around 2% of all people in that locality who rely on provincial social assistance programs. Tom Cooper, that information session executive director, has stated that he is “pretty confident that the results will show that people are significantly better off as a result of getting a little better income and having income redistributed.”
More information at:
Benjamin Lascia, “ONTARIO, CANADA: Mayors react to guaranteed minimum income pilot announcement”, Basic Income News, May 25th 2017
Kate McFarland, “ONTARIO, CANADA: Government Announces Details of Minimum Income Pilot”, Basic Income News, April 25th 2017
Kate McFarland, “ONTARIO, CANADA: Government releases summary of consultations on minimum income pilot”, Basic Income News, March 22nd 2017
CBC News, “Basic income project applications being mailed out in Ontario”, CBC News, 20th June 2017
CBC News, “Got questions about the basic income pilot project? Come to the library on Monday”, CBC News, 28th May 2017
by Benjamin Sadlek | May 25, 2017 | News
Kathleen Wynne. Credit to: CBS Hamilton.
Three communities across Ontario have been selected for the Province’s guaranteed minimum income pilot. Ontario will be rolling out a three-year study in late spring and fall 2017. Premier Kathleen Wynne made the announcement with details of the project in Hamilton on April 24th.
The stated goal of the pilot on the official website of the Ontario Government is to ”test whether a basic income can better support vulnerable workers, improve health and education outcomes for people on low incomes, and help ensure that everyone shares in Ontario’s economic growth.”
The mayors of each community – Lindsay, Thunder Bay, and Brantford/Hamilton/Brant County, expressed hopeful to positive reactions at the announcement that their cities had been chosen to pilot in the project.
Kawartha Lakes Mayor Andy Letham, which is home to the community of Lindsay, describes precarious work as a cause for concern in his community and admits that the status quo of society isn’t functioning well. “The cost of poverty on people’s mental health is real,” said Letham. “So how to we break these cycles?” Lindsay will host 2,000 of the total 4,000 participants.
Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs, a 34-year veteran of the local police force, described his experience with some members of the community: “I saw the same people all the time, like a revolving door.” Hobbs expressed excitement at the possibility of this project positively impacting the lives of those he had consistently interacted with. Workers and citizens of Thunder Bay have had to reinvent themselves as the region transitioned from industries like pulp and paper to health research institutes, law, and genomics.
Pulp and Paper Mills in Thunder Bay, Ontario
Brantford Mayor Chris Friel expressed excitement to take part in a project that will reduce poverty and improve health and educational outcomes. Ron Eddy, the Mayor of Brant Country, stated that he looks forward to observing the results of the project. “The only way you’ll know the outcome is to try it out. So, let’s see what happens,” Mayor Eddy said.
Details on the Pilot
The basic income pilot will randomly select 4,000 individuals between ages 18 to 64 that meet certain criteria, and provide them with a minimum income despite their employment status. The plan will target populations who are in precarious work positions, those already on social assistance, and the homeless. The program will, however, target mostly the “working poor” according to Ontario’s Minister of Community and Social Services Helena Jaczek. Those receiving a minimum income will be compared to a control group, which will not receive payments. The project will look for outcomes using metrics like food security, health and health care usage, education and training, and labor market participation among others.
Recipients of the guaranteed minimum income will receive:
- $16,989 per year for a single person (75 percent of the Canadian poverty line), less 50 percent of the recipient’s earnings from work;
- $24,027 for a couple, less 50 percent of their earnings from work;
- An additional $6,000 for those with disabilities.
In addition to this, recipients will continue to receive other provincial and child benefit payments.
With this version of a guaranteed minimum income, a person earning $12,000 a year would still receive a basic income of $10,989 (subtract $6,000, or half their earnings, from the base amount of $16,989) and therefore receive a total of $22,989. A recipient’s net income will still increase, with the minimum income still active, as earnings from work increase up until around a wage of $34,000, where the payments would disappear. The total cost of the project is expected at $50 million per year.
Hugh Segal, a former senator who was consulted for the project, noted in Manitoba’s “Mincome” experiment in the 1970’s that the community saw improvements in health with no drop in employment, and that the potential exists for the government to save money if it replaced the traditional social assistance programs like Ontario Works with a basic income. The Provincial government is also in the early stages of planning a fourth basic income pilot for the First Nations community.
More information at:
Kate McFarland, “Government Announces Detail of Minimum Income Pilot.” Basic Income News, 25th April 2017
“Ontario Basic Income Pilot.” Government of Ontario, 24th April 2017
Roderick Benns, “City of Kawartha Lakes mayor welcomes basic income pilot in Lindsay.” Precarious Work Chronicle, 25th April 2017
Roderick Benns, “Thunder Bay mayor says basic needs must be met as his city chosen for basic income pilot.” Precarious Work Chronicle, 26th April 2017. Web.
Vincent Ball, “Brantford, Brant part of basic income pilot.” Brantford Expositor, 24th April 2017
