Wall Street Journal

As Democrats embrace a more activist government, some are flirting with an idea that hasn’t received serious attention since the 1970s: a minimum guaranteed income for all Americans.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s presidential candidacy has gained traction with a proposal to give a $1,000 monthly “freedom dividend” to all Americans—from the poorest to the richest, employed and unemployed alike.

Basic Income Today

Organizations are coming together in a common alliance for all of Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspesie, and Îles-de-la-Madeleine, and are wanting to test a basic income guarantee in all of these regions for 20 years.

They would like to know if the health of the inhabitants will improve if everyone has access to a guaranteed basic income. It would replace social aid and would stack on top of retirement income for the elderly.

Roderick Benns

The Quebec Liberal government has hinted strongly in its recent budget that some form of basic income guarantee is imminent – but likely only for a portion of the province, at least to begin with.

Of note in the announcement is that Quebec will bypass any testing of the program, unlike Ontario with its commitment to a pilot project, and instead will begin a restrained roll-out of a minimum income program aimed at lifting the most vulnerable out of poverty.

By Roderick Benns

The ninth annual Basic Income Week surpassed all expectations in Canada with a plethora of basic income-related activities of note. This reflects only a limited cross-section of activities: 

Ontario Basic Income Pilot 

Nowhere is the discussion about basic income more developed than in Ontario where the government is poised to release the parameters of a basic income pilot this fall. No one knows yet where the pilot will be set up, or in how many locations, nor the number of people this will affect. Retired Conservative Senator Hugh Segal acted as special adviser for the project and has already reported back to the Province on his recommendations. 

Segal has long been an advocate for a basic income guarantee and has spent 40 years of his professional life arguing for the policy as a way to mitigate poverty.

By Robin Boadway, Alan Gummo, and Roderick Benns 

Andrew Coyne gets many things right about a basic income guarantee, writing this analysis for the National Post recently.

He gets that a basic income would not replace social insurance programs like Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan. He also gets, albeit with undue pessimism, that the provinces need to be involved. He acknowledges that the level of the guaranteed annual income program proposed by the Macdonald Royal Commission was inadequate, and he implicitly accepts that a basic income of reasonable scope could be afforded by combining the appropriate basic benefit amount with a suitable rate of claw-back as incomes rise. He even observes that a basic income need not deter work incentives; on the contrary, it will be enhanced compared with existing welfare schemes.

By Roderick Benns

As a youth, Tommy Douglas was a championship boxer. His success in the ring is all the more remarkable considering that years earlier he had nearly lost his leg to amputation when an infection set in.

As his many biographers point out, a travelling surgeon agreed to operate for free, as long as his parents consented to allow his medical students to watch. After several operations, he not only walked again, he thrived as an amateur boxer and then built his reputation as someone who fought for the underdog in the political arena as well.

Douglas never forgot his childhood experience and resolved that no one should have to pay for necessary medical care. His efforts are now celebrated within Canada’s history, for not only did he establish Medicare, he also established democratic socialism within the country and its politics.

By Roderick Benns

The federal Liberals have voted to shake-up Canada’s social policy by moving toward a “minimum guaranteed income” model.

At the party’s national convention just held in Winnipeg, the resolution states the party will, in consultation with the provinces, “develop a poverty reduction strategy aimed at providing a minimum guaranteed income.”

Reaction from the Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) was swift.

Roderick Benns recently interviewed David Calnitsky, who is a Canadian PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completing his thesis on the Mincome experiment with basic income. The experiment took place in the 1970s in Dauphin, Manitoba. He has recently published part of it as an article: “More Normal than Welfare”: The Mincome Experiment, Stigma, and Community Experience.”

Benns: What were two or three of the most revealing aspects of the Dauphin, MB experiment with basic income, in terms of how it changed people’s lives?

Calnitsky: My recent paper is on social stigma, and broadly, the “dignity problem,” which I think gets insufficient attention in these debates. Participants with experience in the welfare system wrote about the pervasive indignities inflicted on them. Meanwhile, when asked about Mincome, people viewed the program as a pragmatic source of assistance. According to people’s accounts, participating in Mincome didn’t damage your standing in the community.

By Roderick Benns 

Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site

As the City of Peterborough considers whether to support a basic income guarantee, at least one councillor is ready to offer her support right now.

Councillor Diane Therrien, known for her support of many social justice issues, is also the facilitator of community education and engagement with the Peterborough Poverty Reduction Network.

“I’m happy to support basic income policy,” she tells Leaders and Legacies. “I think it’s an idea that is long overdue.”

By Roderick Benns 

Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site

It’s a dubious milestone, but one we must acknowledge. According to Oxfam, this is the year in which the wealthiest one percent will surpass the combined wealth of the rest of the world.

And because it’s 2016, perhaps we should wish to do something about that.

What can Canada do, a country with only .50 percent of the world’s population?