Chronicle-Herald

Everything in Ruth Westcott’s life changed for the better when she became part of Ontario’s basic income pilot project.

The Thunder Bay woman had been on social assistance for nearly 30 years, but once she came out of the now-cancelled pilot project, her health improved dramatically and she became well enough to work.

“Just like everyone else I know on social assistance, I was getting sicker and sicker and more and more disabled the deeper and deeper my poverty was getting,” she said.

The Lindsay Advocate

As a federal election draws nearer the Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) is urging all federal candidates to consider a basic income as a game-changing solution to income insecurity.

The letter to all federal candidates begins by tackling the issue of financial insecurity head-on.

“As the 2019 federal election approaches, many issues will be debated. A great many of them are linked to income insecurity, which manifests itself in the form of costly symptoms, like anxiety, illness and societal unrest. If the underlying problem is about income, however, then the solution must be, too – or it will not get better.”

The Star

A year after Doug Ford broke his first election promise by axing the province’s basic income pilot project, the future remains uncertain for Ontarians struggling to make ends meet.

The three-year, $150-million experiment was studying whether unconditional cash payments are a better way to support vulnerable workers and improve health and education outcomes for people living in poverty, including those on social assistance.

With a sample size of 4,000 adults in three test sites — Hamilton-Brant, Thunder Bay and Lindsay — and another 2,000 acting as a control group, it was one of the largest and well-designed studies of its kind.

Lindsay Advocate

When Ontarians from all walks of life took part in a ‘general strike’ to oppose cuts made by the PC government under Premier Doug Ford recently, Dr. Steve Oldridge of the Bobcaygeon Medical Centre was among them.

The physician is a champion for rural health care and the Ontario Basic Income Pilot program quashed by Ford’s government.

Kristina Nairn

Northumberland Today

Income is a key factor that affects our health and well-being.

Low income – or poverty – can lead to many problems. When people do not have enough income to pay for basic necessities such as food, housing and other goods and services, they are more likely to have health problems and die younger than people with higher incomes. In Northumberland County, we see how poverty takes a human and social toll that hurts the community and leads to higher health care costs.

The old ways of reducing poverty do not work, and new approach is needed to fix the problem. Thankfully, the Ontario government has taken a major step forward with the announcement of a Basic Income Guarantee pilot project (www.ontario.ca/basicincome) starting later this year in Hamilton/Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay.