Roderick Benns

Study results from the Ontario Basic Income Pilot’s baseline survey have now been released, revealing the stories of participants were hoping to break the cycle of poverty, find better jobs and opportunities, stabilize their housing, and improve their health and well-being.

The baseline survey was conducted by an arms-length, independent evaluation team led by St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Under the initial agreement signed by enrollees, the descriptive statistics were to be made available to pilot participants who requested the survey results (no personal information was included).

CBC News

You may have heard the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

A new Saint John doctor and medical educator says the same holds true for spending on social services.

"Spending on social services tends to have a larger impact on gigantic health outcomes, such as dying, versus spending on health care," said Dr. Daniel Dutton, the newest addition to the instructional staff at Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick.

"In Canada, we spend a gigantic proportion of our money ... on health care, which ends up being treatment of diseases.

Globe and Mail

Linda Nazareth is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Her bookWork Is Not a Place: Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post Jobs Economy is now available.

Another day, another dollar, right? Not exciting maybe, maybe not that fun either, but at least predictable.

Having a job that provides a paycheque at regular intervals is a source of comfort, while not having one is a source of stress. Today, an increasing number of workers get that dollar some days but for one reason or another, some days they do not. As a result, they may be more or less employed, but stressed all at the same time. Income instability is becoming the reality for many, and with that instability comes worry and strain – and maybe health consequences as well.

Basic Income Earth Network

Basic income is going to be tested in Germany. The setup of the experiment will be similar to the one now ending in Finland, which means there will be an unconditional cash transfer to 250 randomly selected people among those already receiving benefits (250 others will act as the control group), and evaluate the impact in terms of labor market behavior, health and social relations.

India Today

Sikkim's ruling party, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), recently declared to include the Universal Basic Income scheme in its manifesto ahead of the Assembly election in 2019 and aims to implement it by 2022. If everything goes according to the plan, it will be the first state to implement UBI in India.

Sikkim has set up examples in the country in different areas in the past also, some of them being:

• Sikkim is the best state for women in the workplace, thanks to its high rates of female workforce participation, there's less crime against women
• Sikkim's literacy rate increased to 82.2% from 68.8% in 2001, among the country's highest

Roderick Benns

OBIP Chronicles — More than 82 per cent of people who were receiving money through the Ontario Basic Income Pilot said they felt “worried” when they heard it was cancelled and another 76 per cent felt “betrayed.”

More than 1,500 of the 4,000 basic income pilot recipients agreed to help the Basic Income Canada Network and the Ontario Basic Income Network continue working for a basic income. BICN conducted a survey of those people. Well over 400 responses have already come back, representing more than 10 per cent of those receiving basic income in Ontario, allowing us to write this special series. The Lindsay Advocate, working in cooperation with BICN, is pleased to be the media partner highlighting these stories. Names have been changed to protect identities.

The Tyee

On Dec. 3, Dan Carter was sworn in as mayor of Oshawa, a city of about 170,000 people northeast of Toronto. He wore a grey suit and pale silver tie as he dipped his head to accept the chain of office.

It was a long way from his years of addiction and homelessness.

Carter, like many people who experience homelessness, had been through the foster care system. He was adopted at the age of two. In his teen years, he fell into addiction. An undiagnosed learning disability left him functionally illiterate. It wasn’t until his sister convinced him to enter rehab at 31 that he was able to get his life back on track, build a career in broadcasting, as a regional councillor, and now as mayor.

Roderick Benns

OBIP Chronicles — A quarter of the people who were collecting basic income chose to volunteer at least some of their time, once they felt more financially stable, according to a survey about the Ontario Basis Income Pilot.

Proponents of a basic income have long maintained that when people have a financial foundation they are more likely to give of their time to others.

Winnipeg Free Press

It’s no surprise that someone who had a bumpy start in life like Winnipeg-based author Evelyn Forget would be concerned with health, happiness and security.

Forget’s father died when she was 12, and she and her two younger siblings were raised by her mother, first on Mother’s Allowance and then on low-skilled and low-waged jobs.

Global News

The basic income pilot, run in Hamilton, Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay, was to provide 4,000 Ontario residents with $17,000 dollars a year for three years.

The program, however, was abruptly cancelled by the provincial government back in August.

Now, one of the pilot’s Hamilton participants, Jessie Golem, has created a photo exhibit documenting the experience of those who say they are facing an uncertain future as a result of the cancellation.