Roderick Benns

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just announced a basic income for Canadians this past week. Well, he didn’t call it that, and yet that’s exactly what happened – at least temporarily.

A basic income ensures everyone an income sufficient to meet basic needs and live with dignity, regardless of one’s work status.

Basic income, in Canada, would look similar to the Canada Child Benefit.

That is, as wages increase the benefit declines, but it declines progressively – not dollar for dollar.

By Roderick Benns

Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site

It’s not something federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau will be allowed to forget, if Senator Art Eggleton has his way. Early in 2014, at a Liberal policy convention, two resolutions were made and accepted by delegates that steer the Liberal Party of Canada toward a basic income guarantee for working-age Canadians.

Eggleton says this is significant, and he has been talking it up wherever he goes.