Christo Aivalis, Adjunct Professor of Canadian Political and Labour History at Queen’s University (in Kingston, Ontario), provides a socialist perspective on basic income in an article for Canadian Dimension.
Aivalis presents an overview of the reasons for which various Canadian political parties have supported a basic income, noting that, for those on the right, interest in the policy is largely driven by interest in bureaucratic efficiency. In contrast, the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) has historically differed from right-of-center parties in seeing basic income as a matter of providing an adequate standard of living as a universal human right.
Aivalis argues that contemporary progressive thought about basic income should follow the NDP in renewing the focus on human rights — as well as additionally addressing the “broader questions of who owns societal means of production and distribution.” He worries that, taken alone, basic income would “fail to engender economic democracy in Canada, and may even weaken it.” At the same time, he believes that, if conceived as part of a “general drive to democratize the economy,” a basic income could pave the way to a “post-capitalist Canadian future.”
Canadian Dimension is Canada’s longest-running periodical to specialize in left-wing political discussion. Notably, its summer 2016 edition was devoted to the topic of basic income.
National Context:
Basic income has recently generated serious consideration throughout much of Canada. The provincial government of Ontario, currently governed by the Liberal Party, is currently preparing a pilot of a basic income guarantee, with an anticipated launch date of April 2017. Prince Edward Island has also decided to pursue a partnership with the federal government in running a pilot. Other provinces have also shown active interest. For example, the Liberal Party of Quebec (Parti libéral du Québec) has been actively promoting discussion of basic income, as has the Green Party of British Columbia, and the policy has seen interest among officials in Alberta.
Some provincial sections of the NDP have recently advocated for a basic income, such as those of Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Overall, though, most of interest throughout Canada is not driven by the NDP, as Aivalis would seem to prefer.
Rudy Karsan, co-founder and former CEO of the former human resource software company Kenexa (sold to IBM in 2012) recently held a TEDx talk in Calgary where he advocated a universal basic income as a means of stimulating innovation.
“We are in the golden age of our species,” Karsan begins his talk. He argues that we already have multiple solutions for the lack of food, water, and energy, and even for global warming; thus, our number one risk is none of these. Instead, he argues, “Meaningful work is about our choice of who we are,” and the lack of it is going to be the number one risk.
Karsan continues by explaining that this problem will not be solved by jobs:
“Jobs are getting decimated in an accelerating pace and they are not coming back.” […]
“We have to break the mental construct that jobs equal work.”
“No!” Karsan continues firmly. Jobs do not equal work. “Meaningful work has been with us forever and will be with us forever. It is not jobs. Jobs are simply a subset of work.” Jobs have created money for us since they came into our lives at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, 250 years ago. “But work can exist without jobs.”
The second mental construct we have to break, according to Karsan, is about entitlement:
“We need to discard all forms of social programs and replace it with one: Universal Basic Income, which is the individual right for every citizen to unconditionally get an income from the state on a regular basis.”
“UBI is not about creating dependence; it is about the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at the lowest level. […] The notion that this entitlement to a UBI makes us smaller and weaker is absolutely untrue”, Karsan states. It is also not a new idea, and the data that came out of Manitoba in the seventies already showed that minimal income had many positive effects.
Karsan even takes it further and states that a UBI is not only something we can afford, but it will also make us greater. “Innovation did not start with homeless people.”
Karsan encourages his public to demand a UBI from their leaders, because he is convinced that our species in the golden age can move a lot further and he hopes and dreams that “we may find a way, not only to find meaning in our lives, but meaning in the universe itself.”
A CBC news report offers a clarion call regarding the increasing demand being placed upon Canadian food banks who are attempting to address the hunger and nutritional needs of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens. Surely there is no better reason for a BI than the need for food banks in one of the richest nations on the planet?
Food Banks Canada, a national umbrella organization, has released its HungerCount2016 report on food bank use in Canada and includes numerous recommendations, the most crucial of which is the creation of a nation-wide Basic Income.
To accomplish this important goal, FBC has provided 4 policy recommendations in its report which the organization believes essential to accomplish this important goal namely:
1. a National Poverty Reduction Strategy by Oct 1. 2017
2. a Basic livable Income with steps leading to its creation
3. rethinking welfare towards a more supportive process
4. investing in Northern Canada’s food security.
Perhaps the most significant beneficiaries of a national BI would be the children who, the CBC report indicates, account for 35% of food bank use across the country. The CBC report also points out that the latest food bank figures show double digit spikes in food bank use in many parts of Canada.
While the CBC report indicates that Toronto is still the “…child poverty capital of Canada”, it also includes links to a number of related CBC items in which the Ontario government has recently announced a BI pilot program and Quebec has expressed interest in the feasibility of a BI, while three other links discuss what a BI might look like in Canada.
The Food Banks Canada full report can be found here: HungerCount2016.
Food Banks Canada has previously called for a BI in their HungerCount2015, which BIEN acknowledged here at that time as well.
Roderick Benns, the author of a new book of interviews on Canadians’ views of basic income, interviewed Chris Ballard, a Liberal Party Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament. In June 2016, Ballard was appointed as Minister of Housing and Minister Responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy, and he will now be overseeing the province’s pilot study of a basic income guarantee.
In the interview, Ballard expresses optimism about the basic income pilot, and speaks about how the changing nature of work creates a need for new social policies. He also discusses federal interest in Ontario’s pilot, mentioning that he will regularly share information with Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.
In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, December 7, the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, agreed to “pursue a partnership with the federal government for the establishment of a universal basic income pilot project” on PEI.
Peter Bevan-Baker CC BY-SA 3.0
The motion was originally proposed by Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, and received the support of all four political parties in the province, which have been united for well over a year in their support for investigating a basic income guarantee (BIG).
Bevan-Baker drew inspiration from past experiments in Manitoba (the Mincome trial of the late 1970s) as well as the pilot scheduled to begin next year in Ontario. He believes that PEI’s small size — the island has only about 150,000 residents — would make it an ideal setting for an additional pilot study. Hugh Segal, adviser for the Ontario pilot, has also encouraged other provinces, such as PEI, to run their own trials of basic income.
According to Bevan-Baker, a pilot project is necessary “so we can evaluate whether the benefits outweigh the costs” — as quoted in a CBC News report about the successful motion — where the costs, in his view, might include a work disincentive effect as well as financial costs to the government. The main benefit specified in the motion is the reduction or elimination of poverty. However, the motion also mentions many other possible positive effects, including “local economic growth, supporting entrepreneurship, reducing administrative complexity and costs, improving working conditions, reducing crime, improving health, and helping to build vibrant rural communities.” CBC News quotes Bevan-Baker as saying, “A universal basic income could enable the greatest unleashing of human potential ever seen.”
The full text of the motion is as follows:
WHEREAS implementing a universal basic income in Prince Edward Island would significantly reduce or potentially eliminate poverty in the province;
AND WHEREAS a universal basic income would likely have many other positive effects,
including local economic growth, supporting entrepreneurship, reducing administrative
complexity and costs, improving working conditions, reducing crime, improving health, and helping to build vibrant rural communities;
AND WHEREAS all four Prince Edward Island political parties have indicated their support for exploring a universal basic income;
AND WHEREAS the federal government has indicated an interest in exploring a universal basic income;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislative Assembly urge government to pursue a partnership with the federal government for the establishment of a universal basic income pilot project in Prince Edward Island;
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Government shall provide an update on the progress of this initiative in every session of this assembly.
The motion is still only an early step toward a basic income pilot in PEI. If the province is to actually implement a pilot, it will require cooperation and support from the federal government. The PEI Department of Family and Human Services has previously issued the following statement:
The Province supports the concept of the Basic Income Guarantee. We have been consistent in our response that any pilot project in this area would require active and committed federal participation. We are always open to partnerships with the federal government to improve the financial well being of the residents in our province.
No specific model for the basic income has been proposed for the (possible) pilot. The Working Group for a Liveable Income — an advocacy group that has been instrumental in promoting BIG in PEI for over a decade — explicitly supports a negative income tax (NIT), in which “if the person receiving BIG gets other personal income, the maximum level benefit will be affected by a reduction rate”. Segal has also recommended an NIT for the Ontario pilot. While ‘universal basic income’ is often used to refer to a universal cash grant with no reduction based on other earnings, in contrast to a NIT (cf. “What is the Basic Income Guarantee?”), it is not certain whether the PEI motion intends the phrase in this sense (which would entail that PEI is pursuing a form of BIG less commonly discussed in Canada).
References
Motion No. 83, Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island.
