by Kate McFarland | Aug 30, 2016 | News, Testimonies
Victor Lau is a former leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, Canada, and a member of BIEN and Basic Income Canada Network.
How did you find out about basic income?
I watched a 1990s video called Sex, Drugs and Democracy that mentions a Guaranteed Income in the Netherlands.
Why do you support basic income?
To eradicate poverty. My parents came to Canada with very little and worked very very hard to succeed and gain a better life.
I believe everyone has a Right to Live and Thrive!
How else would a basic income help people in Canada?
A basic income would also eliminate the stigmatism of Welfare and allow everyone a dignified standard of living irregardless of if they have a job or not.
Photo used by permission of Victor Lau.
Basic Income Interviews is a special recurring segment of Basic Income News, introduced in July 2016 by Jason Murphy and Kate McFarland. Through a series of short interviews, we aspire to display the diversity of support that basic income receives throughout the world.
Have your own thoughts to contribute? Want to see yourself in a future Basic Income Interview? Visit our interview form.
by Andre Coelho | Aug 17, 2016 | News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced a revamped Child Benefit program, as reported by Tania Kohut on Canada Global News. This new program replaces the Canada Child Tax Benefit, Universal Child Care Benefit and income splitting.
According to Trudeau’s government, this new program will cover nine out of ten families with children, and will be targeted to disburse more money to low-income families than to higher income ones. The increase in child benefits will be as much as 64% for some families, since they will be eligible for up to 6400 CAN$ per year per child under six years old, and up to 5400 CAN$ per child up to seventeen years old (values on average). This is comparison to an average of 3600 CAN$ per year in previous years.
The new Child Benefit program will represent about 18% of the Canadian median income, and 58% of the poverty line (as defined by the top income of those living in poverty according to Canada Without Poverty). The program is almost universal in giving out benefits to families with children, although it is designed more like a negative income tax than a universal basic income, since the benefit value gets automatically reduced with increasing income. This, according to Trudeau, will lift about 300 000 children out of poverty, in Canada.
Like previous child benefit programs, the new grant is conditional in nature – taking into account household income and the number and age of children. However, it has been enlarged in value and in population coverage, which are definitely steps towards universality and covering basic needs. In this respect, this social security policy revamp is in line with all recent developments in Canada, which has seen increasing interest and support for social policies like basic income. Trudeau’s government and Canada’s regional authorities (especially in Ontario) are consistently showing signs of eagerness to change the social security paradigm in Canada, through both enlarging and expanding conditional benefits and preparing experiments with basic income.
More information at:
Tania Kohut, “Canada Child Benefit: Everything you need to know“, Global News, July 19th 2016
Statistics Canada, “Individuals by total income level, by province and territory”, July 2016
by Kate McFarland | Aug 16, 2016 | News
A new opinion poll by Canada’s Angus Reid Institute finds a majority of respondents in favor of guaranteed minimum income. However, a majority also believe that the policy is unaffordable and would not support an increase in taxes to fund it.
The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) conducted a poll of Canadians’ beliefs and attitudes about guaranteed annual income. The sample consisted of 1516 randomly-selected members of the Angus Reid Forum, a Canada-wide market research community. Individuals can sign up to join the Angus Reid Forum online, after which they are occasionally sent surveys on a wide array of topics.
The questionnaire asked respondents about guaranteed income, defined as follows:
Those who made less than the threshold through employment earnings would be paid the difference by the federal government, while those who made more than the threshold would receive no additional funding. This payment would typically replace most or all other forms of government assistance, such as welfare and employment insurance.
ARI asked respondents about their support for the policy at three different threshold levels (the sample was divided into thirds, each asked about a different value): $10,000, $20,000, and $30,000.
It was found that 57%, 65% and 67% of respondents supported the guaranteed minimum income at the three respective levels (that is, there was higher support for the more generous guaranteed incomes).
Survey respondents were also asked about their agreement or disagreement with the following statements:
- “A guaranteed income program would give Canadians greater economic freedom.” (66% agreed)
- “A guaranteed income program would be too expensive for Canada’s government to afford.” (59% agreed)
- “I would be willing to pay more in taxes in order to support some kind of guaranteed income.” (34% agreed)
- “Guaranteed income programs discourage people from working.” (63% agreed)
In addition to asking about guaranteed minimum income specifically, the poll inquired about some of the factors that have been cited to justify the need for such a policy. In particular, subjects were asked whether they believed that elimination of jobs due to new technologies is a serious concern (63% said they did) and whether they consider Canada’s current programs for low-income assistance to be effective (46% said that these programs were either “very” or “moderately” ineffective, compared to 36% judging them very or moderately effective).
It seems that, in general, members of Canada’s Angus Reid Forum support a guaranteed income, believe that it would enhance economic freedom, and are concerned about technological unemployment and inadequacies in the current Canadian welfare system. However, they show hesitation when it comes to paying for a guaranteed income: most doubt that Canada is currently able to afford it, and most are unwilling to pay more in taxes in order to provide more funds. To learn more about Canada’s taxation – look here.
The ARI has released comprehensive tables showing the breakdown of responses according to province, gender, age, education level, and household income.
It is worth mentioning that the “guaranteed income” described in the ARI questionnaire differs from a “basic income” as usually described. Notably, under a basic income, the same amount of payment is guaranteed to all, with no means test (although, most likely, higher levels of taxation would entail that individuals above a certain “threshold” would be net contributors rather than beneficiaries).
Plausibly, a different definition would affect survey results. The lack of means-testing has often been cited as a reason to predict that a basic income would not disincentivize work (in contrast to means-tested welfare programs). Thus, perhaps, people might be somewhat less inclined to think that a UBI would discourage work. On the other hand, opponents often emphasize the universality of basic income as a reason to believe that the policy would be prohibitively expensive; thus, UBI might seem (even) less affordable than a guaranteed income as described in this survey. Of course, until another poll is actually conducted, this all remains speculative.
Policies such as guaranteed minimum income and universal basic income are presently under serious discussion in Canada, with the provincial government of Ontario planning a pilot project.
REFERENCE
Shachi Kurl, “Basic Income? Basic unaffordable, say most Canadians”, Angus Reid Institute; August 11, 2016.
Andrew Russell, “Canadians support guaranteed income, but don’t want to pay for, think it will make us lazy: poll”, Global News; August 12, 2016.
Photo CC BY 2.0 Just a Prairie Boy.
Article reviewed by Genevieve Shanahan.
This basic income news made possible in part by Kate’s supporters on Patreon.
by Jenna van Draanen | Aug 15, 2016 | News
File photo: www.sudbury.com
A local health unit in Ontario, Canada — the Haliburton, Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit — has recently endorsed the concept of a basic income guarantee, joining the ranks of many local health units in Ontario who have done the same, such as the Simcoe Muskoka and Sudbury District Health Units. The health units agree that a guaranteed minimum income could give families living in poverty the ability to meet their basic needs. The Haliburton, Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit notes that a basic income guarantee could have “health promoting effects, and reduce health and social inequities” and “is considered to have merits as an effective policy option.” Many other public health organizations in Ontario are saying the same thing. Public health as a topic is always changing and relevant, it is taught in Universities similar to the University of Southern California (USC) as well as others and helps us to look at the way the world works around us.
In fact, the Association of Local Public Health Agencies and the Ontario Boards of Health (organizations which contain local public health units among their members) have also endorsed basic income and are calling on federal and provincial ministers to investigate basic income further. The official position of these groups is that they are “requesting that the federal ministers of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, Families, Children and Social Development. Finance and Health; as well as the Ontario ministers responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy’ Community and Social Services, Children and Youth Services, Finance, Health and Long-Term Care, prioritize joint federal-consideration and investigation into a basic income guarantee as a policy option for reducing poverty and income insecurity.”
Support for this policy can be found within local, provincial, and national public health organizations. The Canadian Public Health Association, a professional association of public health practitioners, is calling on the federal government to “take leadership in adopting a national strategy to provide all Canadians with a basic income guarantee” — saying that every Canadian should be able to meet their fundamental needs for adequate housing and nutritious food, two key factors that affect the health of Canadians.
Key medical associations in the country have come out in support of basic income as well. In 2015, 194 physicians in Ontario signed on to a letter in support of basic income that went to the Ontario Health Minister, Eric Hoskins. In addition, the Canadian Medical Association has publicly voiced its support for a basic income.
Such organizations are globally accessible to raise the issues and rights of practitioners. While other associations help doctors in establishing their private practices, and assist them to prosper. You might have to carry out a little research if you are situated somewhere in America, but you can appraise a few websites – https://pecaa.com/ – to get a deeper understanding of their functionality.
For more information about the health organizations that have come out in support of basic income in Canada see the sources below:
Canadian Public Health Association, “Public Health Matters: Basic Income Guarantee.” CPHA, 2015.
alPHa, “Public Health Support for a Basic Income Guarantee.” Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa) 2016.
Canadian Medical Association, “2015 Canadian Medical Association Resolution: National Support for a Basic Income Guarantee.” CMA, 2015.
Jonathan Migneault, “Health Unit: Lift more people out of poverty with a basic income guarantee.” Sudbury.com April 25, 2016.
by Kate McFarland | Aug 6, 2016 | News
BIEN co-founder Guy Standing will be participating in Social Canada Revisited, a conference on the architecture of Canadian social policy, to be held in Kingston, Ontario from August 22-24.
Standing will speak on a panel on income security, which is scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, August 23. He’ll be joined by Miles Corak–an economist at the University of Ottawa who researches child rights, poverty, immigration, social and economic mobility, unemployment, and social policy.
Topics of other panels include equality of opportunity, social inclusion, and public opinion, among others. According to a synopsis of the theme of the conference:
[S]ome Canadians have consistently fallen through the cracks [of Canada’s social policy architecture], most significantly Canada’s indigenous people. And contemporary economic, labour market and social dynamics are posing new challenges. The labour market is increasingly skewed between high and low skilled jobs; income growth is stagnant for many; younger Canadians struggle to secure sustainable career and life paths; many young and old alike worry about retirement income; and new cracks have appeared in Canada’s increasingly diverse social fabric.
Kingston, Ontario has already been considering basic income as a response to such contemporary economy challenges. In December 2015, it became the first municipality in Canada to pass a motion endorsing basic income, calling on the governments of Ontario and Canada “to research, develop, implement and evaluate a Basic Income Guarantee for all citizens” as a means to “reduce income insufficiency, insecurity, and inequality.” Kingston city council sent copies of its successful motion to other municipal governments — some of which, such as Waterloo, have followed Kingston’s lead in endorsing basic income.
One goal of the conference is to “examine persistent and/or new social fault-lines and ask where new approaches and new thinking are needed.” Given Standing’s participation at the conference, and Kingston’s own important position in Ontario’s basic income movement, one can guess that basic income will be among the “new approaches” discussed.
For more information about Social Canada Revisited, including a full schedule of speakers and sessions, see the event’s webpage from the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University.
Queen’s University photo CC polannahowie
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