Until recently, Canadian austerity proponents have not paid a lot of attention to basic income. But now that governments are taking it up, things are changing. The one influential study from the right, the Fraser Institute Report (January 2015), has become a major resource for conservative policy analysts appearing in the media these days. They are repeatedly defining basic income ... Read More »
Tag Archives: inequality
DiNovo says Basic Income must work in tandem with new workplace standards
Fifty years ago, MPP Cheri DiNovo’s father was involved with the Basic Income movement in Canada. That shows the longevity of an idea that has refused to die, she says, as Ontario and other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world contemplate moving forward with some kind of minimum income guarantee. While the NDP’s DiNovo is very supportive of the ... Read More »
P.E.I. Green Party leader: Look beyond economic measurements for full benefits of Basic Income
Although he counts himself lucky not to have experienced poverty firsthand, the Green Party leader of Prince Edward Island, Peter Bevan-Baker, has many friends who haven’t been as fortunate. When he rose in the P.E.I. Legislature last week and got all-party support for a Basic Income project to be set up on the island, he may have had them in ... Read More »
Followed by poverty, Peterborough man finds hopeful cause in Basic Income
When he was a young man, just leaving high school, Jason Hartwick always pictured himself in front of a classroom. He saw himself as a high school teacher, helping to inspire young people and to guide them along their lives’ paths. The thing is, Hartwick didn’t have anyone to guide him. He grew up in poverty, bounced around from town ... Read More »
Basic Income has ‘two sources of benefit’ to modify human behaviour: Mincome leader
There are “two sources of benefit” inherent in a Basic Income Guarantee, according to the executive director of the famous Mincome project in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba. Ron Hikel, who served as executive director of Mincome from 1972 to 1977, says the first source of behavioural influence is the simple no-strings-attached receipt of the money itself. The second is “the ... Read More »
Segal says health and work behaviours will be key to measure in Basic Income pilot
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 »
Kingston group kick-starts national letter writing campaign to Duclos on Basic Income
The Kingston Action Group for a Basic Income Guarantee is living up to its name — taking action in the form of a national letter writing campaign directed at the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Jean-Yves Duclos. The hope is that a large number of people will simply copy and paste this letter, adding their own name, address, ... Read More »
Basic Income petition beats all expectations
In May 2016, Reza Hajivandi and a bunch of others interested in social issues ended up in the same space under the North York Community Housing Leadership and Community Engagement program in Toronto. Through the course they were taking, they discussed and learned what community leadership and participation meant. As a last step of fulfilling the course’s requirements, they had ... Read More »
New book on Basic Income by Leaders and Legacies publisher
Roderick Benns, publisher of Leaders and Legacies, spent nearly two years interviewing prominent leaders and academics across Canada on the merits of a basic income guarantee, hoping to help put the policy on the radar of politicians across the country. A basic income (also known as a guaranteed annual income) would ensure no one ever drops below the poverty line. ... Read More »