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Roderick Benns recently interviewed Toni Pickard, coordinator of Kingston Action Group, which supports a basic income guarantee for Canadians.
Benns: How long has the Kingston Action Group for Basic Income Guarantee been around, and are there other social issues which you advocate for?
Pickard: In November of 2013, the co-founder of the group and I each invited a few people to an informal meeting with Rob Rainer to talk about his fledgling Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Push campaign for basic income. The next month most of us reconvened to work in earnest to support his campaign. A core group of seven has been working steadily since then. Others have come and gone and we now have about 13 members. The name Kingston Action Group for BIG has evolved over time.
We’ve always focused uniquely on basic income and are too busy with that to think about working on other important issues that we support in spirit. We have two main goals:, to spread awareness and generate discussion and support with the aim of creating a grassroots movement for basic income; and to secure political support for the BIG concept.
Benns: What have you noticed happening in the Kingston Region that gives you hope about a basic income guarantee?
Pickard: We’ve been gratified to receive support and help from the Kingston community. We have some 100 people whom we update and sometimes ask for help. Most recently, for example, we’ve asked them to host ‘kitchen table talks’ in their homes so we can have in depth discussions of BIG with a few interested people at a time.
Most of us are long-time residents of this small city where overlapping circles ensure that word travels easily and fast. With the help of friends and acquaintances, we’ve reached out to and have been well received by, for example, various faith communities, organized labour organizations, continuing education groups, the francophone community, secondary school and university students and so on. In addition, here as elsewhere, coverage of basic income is increasing in all forms of media. We write and respond to letters, op-eds, interviews, etc. Interest in basic income ignites quickly as people hear of it, and small efforts on our part seem to generate unexpectedly large effects.
Benns: In what way do you try to get this on the agenda or in the thought processes of local politicians?
Pickard: To some extent perhaps it’s simply moxie on our part. We stay in contact with the presidents of the local riding associations and meet with our elected representatives. We bring written material with us, respond to the questions and arguments put to us. We might go two by two, setting up a series of meetings. Whenever we publish op-eds and letters, we see that our local politicians get copies. We sought the support of the MPP candidates in the Provincial election last year and received it from three of the four major party candidates. Most of our local politicians have shown a real readiness to take the feasibility and potential benefits of basic income seriously.
Benns: Do you see a basic income guarantee as replacing other social programs eventually? If so, which ones?
Pickard: The first question is a simple one. We definitely see basic income as a replacement for Provincial welfare programs. A main reason BIG is so badly needed is that our welfare programs are dysfunctional. They are humiliating, stingy, and altogether mean spirited; they create enormous work disincentives; they trap recipients in poverty. Everyone knows this. So far, governments have tried to remedy the problems by tinkering with program details. But tinkering can’t rescue fundamentally flawed programs. Basic income will not involve complex rules or the micromanagement of people’s lives; access and administration will be simple; there will be total privacy and dignity for recipients who won’t have to answer to any government employee for the way they live or use their money.
The second question is more complex. Which programs to replace depends first on having a full picture of the multiplicity of Federal and Provincial income support mechanisms in Canada today. We need to know the effects of closing/altering the terms of particular programs. There will surely be an ongoing need for health care, vision care, dental and drug benefits, mental health and addiction services, special assistance for people with physical or learning disabilities, etc. In addition it seems likely to be sensible to keep long established programs such as Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan, which have worked well in the past though recent changes may have undermined their efficacy so they are in need of improvement.
Which programs to close or keep can’t be discussed intelligently without access to mega data, expert analysis, and the power necessary to raise and reallocate revenues. It is Government which has those resources. Once the political will to implement BIG exists, the details will have to be worked out by Government, and whatever proposals ensue negotiated with the opposition.
The immediate and downstream benefits of creating a solid income floor for everyone warrant facing this complexity and need for intra-governmental cooperation. Once in place, Basic income can have transformative power. It can restore our democracy, revitalize our economy and recreate a functioning caring Canada.
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