The 500-page report was 2 years in the making. The result: The panel of three economists rejected a basic income guarantee in favour of fixing the existing hotchpotch of BC income supports and services. It make 65 recommendations on how to do this. Bottom line: It leaves many low-income adults of working age, including single parents (mostly women) and others trying to survive on welfare living in deep poverty.
Author: Coalition Canada
The Royal Society of Canada published a new report by leading Canadian economists that make 16 recommendation in four areas to support economic recovery in Canada from COVID-19: renewing the social contract; reinvigorating the economy; enabling innovation; and improving crisis policy responses. The first recommendation from this report is that Canada establish a basic income guarantee (BIG). Read the full report here.
Dr. Evelyn Forget, an economist at the University of Manitoba, explains in the November issue of Policy Options why “A guaranteed minimum income would be more effective than current government programs” and why replacing the raft of recovery benefits with a simple, permanent guaranteed income would be an automatic stabilizer for people and the economy.
Watch this webinar about what a basic income would mean for students. Basic Income is proposed as a solution to the financially precarious position that a growing number of students find themselves in. Viewed over 500 times, this video is hosted by BICYN, BI Nova Scotia, BICN, the Canadian Federation of Students and the Meal Exchange.
Nov 3 @7pm EST
Should Freelancers Advocate for Universal Basic Income
A webinar hosted by :
Canadian Freelance Union/Syndicat canadien des pigistes
Sheila Regehr, Chair of Basic Income Canada Network, responds to Speech from the Throne
The Speech from the Throne began with the message that ‘this is not the time for austerity’ and talked about ‘fighting for every Canadian’. The content is far more status quo than bold or transformative, however, and doesn’t match the rhetoric. Canadians from all sectors and walks of life are calling for a basic income to give everyone a fighting chance but it was glaringly absent.
Basic income, just transition depend on each other, Regehr says
The Energy Mix (September 23, 2020)
The very basic idea is that everyone is part of society and the economy. Everyone should be able to participate and benefit from it. In our modern world that takes money. It’s a matter of human rights and dignity, and it’s a common good, the idea of sharing resources.
But our systems of income security and social protection don’t do that nearly well enough. That’s why we see what COVID has just magnified enormously for us, that we’ve got these problems of poverty, inequality, insecurity, anxiety, systemic discrimination that we’ve been fighting for a long time but obviously haven’t made very many dents.
Senators call for basic income to redress racism and inequality
OTTAWA, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020—Senators Lankin, McCallum and Pate hosted a meeting with Indigenous women leaders and MP Leah Gazan to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous women in Manitoba and the place of guaranteed livable basic income in redressing systemic racism and inequality.
National Observer, (September 15, 2020)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been pressured to make universal basic income policy a top priority as the throne speech, where he is expected to lay out a federal agenda, quickly approaches. Financial programs put in place during the pandemic prove that the government is capable of making it happen.
Chronicle Herald (August 20, 2020)
Proponents say a universal basic income helps lift people out of poverty.
Read five letters to the editor responding to a critic of universal basic income, and why he’s wrong in stating it makes recipients even more reliant on the state.