by Guest Contributor | Jul 23, 2016 | News
The Government of Ontario is moving to undertake a basic income pilot project. In recent weeks it has been receiving expert information and advice, for example from Jurgen De Wispelaere (formerly on the Board of Basic Income Canada Network and now a member of its new Advisory Council). On May 26th De Wispelaere presented to the government’s Deputy Ministers Social Policy Committee.
Two of the most knowledgeable experts concerning the Manitoba Mincome experiment of the 1970s are its former executive director, Dr. Ron Hikel, and University of Manitoba economist and researcher Dr. Evelyn Forget. At the recent North American Basic Income Congress in Winnipeg, Dr. Hikel spoke about Mincome and lessons learned that could be applied to the Ontario pilot. I also recommend watching Dr. Forget’s appearance on June 13th on Steve Paikin’s program, The Agenda: the 17 minute video reflects Evelyn’s sweeping knowledge of the history and results of Mincome.
Another encouraging sign of the Ontario government’s seriousness behind giving basic income a try was its appointment last month of the Hon. Hugh Segal as the pilot’s special advisor. A trailblazer for basic income in Canada over the past 40 years, Mr. Segal will now “deliver a discussion paper to the province by the fall to help inform the design and implementation of the pilot….The discussion paper will include advice about potential criteria for selecting target populations and/or locations, delivery models and advice about how the province could evaluate the results of the basic income pilot” (source).
Ontario’s Premier, the Hon. Kathleen Wynne, has publicly recognized that Ontario needs to investigate basic income as an alternative to welfare. Among welfare’s many problems: its profound stigmatization of “clients” of the system. And on that, I recommend David Calnitsky’s fine academic paper exploring the non-stigmatizing effects of Manitoba Mincome.
by Rob Rainer
Basic Income Advocate and Member, Advisory Council of Basic Income Canada Network
by Kate McFarland | Jul 10, 2016 | News
On June 22, 2016, the Waterloo Regional Council passed a resolution endorsing basic income.
More specifically, the resolution encourages the governments of Ontario and Canada “to research, develop, implement and evaluate a Basic Income Guarantee for all citizens,” and expresses the municipality’s support in these initiatives.
The Waterloo Regional Council also declared that it would forward the resolution to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and Ontario Municipal Social Services Association, to encourage them to consult the municipality in the “development and evaluation of the pilot project to be implemented in Ontario.” The council hopes that Waterloo will be considered as a test site for the pilot.
As the resolution describes, the Waterloo Region has been plagued by food insecurity due to low income. A basic income guarantee “would reduce income insufficiency, insecurity, and inequality and ensure everyone an income sufficient to meet basic needs and live in dignity regardless of work status.”
The successful motion originated with the Kingston City Council, which, on December 15, 2015, became Canada’s first municipality to endorse basic income. At this time, the Kingston City Council forwarded their motion to support basic income to all other municipalities in the province of Ontario.
As of the time of this writing, Waterloo is the largest municipality in Ontario to support a basic income guarantee, according to a report by Roderick Benns for Leaders and Legacies (also posted to the Basic Income Canada Network blog).
References:
Keely Phillips, “Region of Waterloo Endorses Basic Income,” Basic Income Waterloo Region, June 23, 2016.
Roderick Benns, “Waterloo Region becomes largest municipality in Ontario to support basic income resolution,” Leaders and Legacies, June 30, 2016.
Background:
Joe Timothy, “Kingston is first municipality to endorse basic income,” Basic Income News, December 24, 2015.
Joe Timothy, “Ontario is Ready to Test a Basic Income,” Basic Income News, April 1, 2016.
André Coelho, “Ontario reaches further into basic income implementation,” Basic Income News, June 26, 2016.
Photo: Uptown Waterloo CC Andre Recnik
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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 Liam Upton | Jul 21, 2015 | News
Roderick Benns, “Waterloo group works to make basic income guarantee part of the conversation“, Leaders and Legacies, 10 February 2015
