Retired Conservative Senator Hugh Segal’s long awaited report on Ontario’s Basic Income pilot has been released, where he emphasizes the need to understand the full costs of poverty before fairly evaluating the new pilot. Segal recommends a monthly payment of at least $1,320 for a single person which is about 75 percent of the province’s poverty line. For those with ... Read More »
The ninth annual Basic Income Week surpassed all expectations in Canada with a plethora of basic income-related activities of note. This reflects only a limited cross-section of activities: Ontario Basic Income Pilot Nowhere is the discussion about basic income more developed than in Ontario where the government is poised to release the parameters of a basic income pilot this fall. ... Read More »
Retired Conservative Senator Hugh Segal energized about 50 Ontario advocates of a basic income guarantee on Saturday who were looking for inspiration and advice from one of the great leaders of the movement. Segal didn’t disappoint, bringing his trademark humour and optimism in support of a cause he has championed for 40 years. He says a “confluence of events” has ... Read More »
Trying to support a family while holding down several part-time jobs. Accepting short-term contracts without benefits. Working full time but earning wages so low your annual income falls below the poverty line. Trying to survive month to month on inadequate unemployment insurance or social assistance payments. This is what life is like for many Canadians. Unfortunately, the numbers of financially ... Read More »
When his parents left Holland for Canada, Gary H. J. Pluim was just 13 years old. His father was in the furniture business in Holland, but he watched his dad struggle in his adopted homeland. At one point his father developed symptoms of depression. All eight kids did what they could do and the older ones, including Pluim, got part ... Read More »
If there’s one thing retired Conservative Senator Hugh Segal knows a thing or two about, it’s political strategy. Segal was chief of staff to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in the 1990s and associate secretary of cabinet in Ontario in the 1980s. So when he thinks about the Liberal Party of Canada’s policy resolutions last year, about supporting a basic ... Read More »
A former Canadian Conservative senator, Hugh Segal, says it’s time to start treating Canadian citizens as well as corporations. Segal, who has spent over 40 years in pursuit of a basic income guarantee policy for Canadians, says the nature of work is shifting and governments need to respond. A basic income would see any Canadian who falls below the poverty ... Read More »
Canada’s smallest province might just be the first to go BIG – and Hugh Segal couldn’t be happier. After all party leaders in Prince Edward Island endorsed a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) program recently as a poverty reduction strategy, there is optimism that the long-sought-after program might just become a reality. “I am delighted to hear this news,” Segal, the ... Read More »
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