Author: Coalition Canada

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Artists For Basic Income

Clayton Windatt: The movement is part of my life

Clayton Windatt, artist and UBI activist
Clayton Windatt, artist and UBI activist

“Thinking about speculative design and how it can question oppression and push towards larger shifts in society forces me to reflect on my own role in social activism. I consider my proximity to an issue and make an effort to speak about relevance to me as a way of communicating relevance to others. Although design-thinking alone cannot change society, critical offerings enacted through community with great effort towards building consensus can take individual goals further than I could alone…”

Read the rest of this article on Clayton Windatt’s website

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Our submission to the 2021 Federal Budget Consultation

Thank you for the opportunity to bring forward our four recommendations for the 2021 budget. Coalition Canada’s recommendations are based on the research and on discussions with numerous groups and people from all walks of life across Canada.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Coalition Canada urges the federal government to:

1. Introduce a national basic income guarantee.

It should be paid monthly to residents of Canada aged 18 to 64. Other federal income transfers, such as the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors, should be adjusted to ensure fairness.

2. Design a national basic income guarantee program that delivers the greatest support to working-age adults with lowest incomes, regardless of work status.

Those with no income should receive the full benefit. As earned income increases beyond the established benefit level, the benefit should be gradually reduced by a proportion of earned income. 

3. Engage with each province and territory to harmonize the social transfer they receive as the federal government assumes responsibility for income transfers to working-age adults.

Start with the Government of Prince Edward Island, which has already requested discussions with the federal government to provide a basic income guarantee for the people of PEI. 

4.  Include Indigenous people and governments in a national basic income guarantee.

Consultation must respect the sovereignty of Indigenous governments.

Continue reading “Our submission to the 2021 Federal Budget Consultation”
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Artists For Basic Income

The Writer’s Union of Canada endorsement

TWUC endorsement
TWUC endorsement

TWUC calls on the government to implement a Basic Income Guarantee as an economic foundation for Canada’s workers. A basic income should complement and not replace or in any way diminish existing arts support programs.

Read this on TWUC’s webpage
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Artists For Basic Income News

Toronto Arts Council endorsement

TAC's UBI endorsement
TAC's UBI endorsement

Toronto Arts Council supports a federal Basic Income Guarantee

See the opinion piece published in The Globe and Mail, on March 20, 2021, and in La Presse on March 25. PDF of the article here. 

Read this on TAC’s webpage
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British Columbia News

How a Basic Income Could Save Lives in a Pandemic

Victoria – The Tyee (Jan 07, 2021): Emergency benefits showed the value of ensuring all Canadians are guaranteed enough money to meet basic needs. A basic income program could have saved lives and reduced COVID-19 transmission when the pandemic struck last spring, says Evelyn Forget, economist and professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. And basic income, as both a health and a poverty reduction policy, could still help people weather the second wave and those to come, says Forget.

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News

Canadian academics call for a Basic income Guarantee

December 17, 2020: The Royal Society of Canada released Renewing the Social Contract: Economic Recovery in Canada from Covid-19. Authored by 11 leading Canadian academics in the fields of economics, law, environment and health, the report provides 16 recommendations in 4 key areas: (1) Renewing the social contract; (2) Reinvigorating the Canadian economy for Innovation and resilience; (3) Enabling innovation; and (4) Improving  crisis policy response. Their #1 recommendation to renew the social contract is to establish a basic income guarantee. They also recommend ensuring paid sick leave, universal childcare that provides Early Childhood Education. To pay for these they recommend comprehensive tax reform that calls for taxing all income earned from capital gains the same way we tax earnings and also re-instituting an inheritance tax in order to address inequality.

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News

Canada’s poor continue to be told “not yet”

The Senate – 9 Dec, 2020: Using a rare procedural step to oppose the second reading of Bill C-17, an Act granting money for federal public administration to the end of March 2021, Senator Kim Pate made a stunning speech in the Senate Chamber. Despite promises from the federal government, 3.5 million Canadians living below the poverty line continue to be excluded from income support programs like CERB and enhancements to EI, because the government says “not yet” to those living in deepest poverty. Read or watch this brilliant and impactful speech here.

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Media coverage Prince Edward Island

Not another pilot project please!

Charlottetown – The Guardian (10 Dec, 2020): PEI’s Report from the all-party Special Committee on Poverty recommended implementing a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) in PEI as a test case for all of Canada – but it also included a backup plan if the federal government declines to partner with PEI to deliver a province-wide program. Plan B is another pilot reaching one-tenth of the people who need a basic income in PEI. BIG advocates say no to Plan B.

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Media coverage

Pope Frances calls for UBI

The Guardian (24 Nov, 2020): In his new book due out this December, Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future, Pope Francis speaks of the economic, social and political changes he says are needed to address inequalities after the pandemic ends. “Recognizing the value to society of the work of non-earners is a vital part of our rethinking in the post-Covid world… By providing a universal basic income, we can free and enable people to work for the community in a dignified way…” he said.

The Pope also criticized trickle-down economics, the theory that tax breaks and other incentives for big business and the wealthy eventually will benefit the rest of society through investment and job creation. He called it “the false assumption of the infamous trickle-down theory that a growing economy will make us all richer”.

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Artists For Basic Income Media coverage

Zainub Verjee on a basic income for creatives

Artpreneur keynote Zainub Verjee
Artpreneur keynote Zainub Verjee

Interview: Artpreneur keynote Zainub Verjee on a basic income guarantee for Canadian creatives

Here is an excerpt of the article published in the Ottawa news website Apt613.ca by Ryan Pepper on November 19, 2020

“It’s no secret that the arts sector is in a crisis. COVID-19 restrictions closed venues and institutions in March and many still haven’t reopened—and many, some in Ottawa, won’t open again. This month’s annual Artpreneur conference is dedicating three days to the disruptions in Ottawa’s creative sector. But instead of mourning the loss of venues, incomes, and livelihoods, the conference is looking to the future for sustainable, lasting solutions.

“One of the buzzy proposals is a Basic Income Guarantee (B.I.G.), which gained popularity after the successful rollout of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The idea now has wide, cross-partisan support…”

Read the full article