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Guaranteed Basic Income – An Idea Whose Time Has Come!

basic income

The National Council board of Directors has approved the Society’s support for the Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) program as an effective process to help resolve poverty in Canada. The following is the first in a series of articles designed to educate our readers and followers on the program.

Guaranteed Basic Income – An Idea Whose Time Has Come!

How many of our neighbours in need would benefit from the ability to upgrade their education, learn a new trade or spend quality time with their children instead of working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet? These types of positive changes and outcomes were among the many reported by the vast majority of the 4000 participants in Ontario’s Guaranteed Basic Income pilot project (2017-2019).

Guaranteed Basic Income is an affordable, feasible means of giving dignity and hope to low-income people in our communities. A properly designed, means-tested program can accomplish the same objectives for people aged 18 -64 that the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors and Canadian Child Benefit have achieved – lifting thousands of households above the poverty line.

A GBI program is different from the concept of a Universal Basic Income which assumes a flat payment to every single adult in the targeted age group, like Old Age Security. The federal Parliamentary Budget Office and Basic Income Canada both released reports outlining the affordability of a means-tested GBI after accounting for offsets realized by replacing existing provincial social assistance programs.  Let us advocate for an affordable means- tested GBI program that supports those most in need.

Please visit https://www.ubiworks.ca/howtopay and https://basicincomecanada.org/policy_options/

Danny Bourne, Advocacy Circle
SSVP Canada

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