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.
Category: British Columbia
‘Here’s who lost jobs in the pandemic, and who needs support’
By Iglika Ivanova
The Tyee (July 17, 2020)
The COVID-19 crisis has caused unprecedented job losses across Canada, and B.C. has not been spared. Between February and May almost 590,000 B.C. workers lost their jobs or more than half their hours — 23 per cent of all workers employed in February. Despite a slight recovery of jobs in May and June, the scale of job losses and disruptions far exceed those seen in typical recessions.
While all sectors of the economy have been affected, the labor market hit has worsened existing inequalities. Lower paid workers in part-time, temporary and more precarious jobs where much more likely to lose their jobs or the majority of their hours than those in higher paid, more secure jobs.
Iglika Ivanova is a senior economist and the public interest researcher at the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Categories
Livable Income Vancouver Podcast
A guaranteed livable income would prevent people from having their lives shortened and made miserable from poverty and poverty-related ill health.
– C.A. L’Hirondelle, Livable4All
A women-led group of volunteers in Vancouver, BC bringing the voices of the feminist, racial equality, and anti-poverty movements to the campaign for Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI), an income guaranteed to all set at a rate that meets the cost of living.
They want a non-taxable Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) to replace our current exploitative and paternalistic welfare system, and reduce inequality in the labour market, without leaving anyone worse off.
They have developed a set of principles for a Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI).
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Townhall in Vancouver
Townhall on Guaranteed Livable Income
Images from the Townhall that was co-hosted with Don Davies and Jenny Kwan in 2018.
