Tom Cooper, Director of Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, co-facilitator of the Ontario Basic Income Network, and Civic engagement and Resource Development instructor at Mohawk College in Hamilton, ON. Credit: Tom Cooper
Today on Small Change, we’re continuing last week’s conversation around a Guaranteed Basic Income – something I like to refer to as a Guaranteed Standard of Living.
I’m joined today by Tom Cooper, Director of Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. The mandate of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction includes advocating for increased Ontario Works (OW), Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), and Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) payments, as well as addressing income inequality and homelessness.
In addition to that admiral undertaking, Tom has just become a co-facilitator of the Ontario Basic Income Network (OBIN) and is also teaching an online course at Mohawk College in Hamilton, ON, on Civic Engagement and Resource Development.
We begin by discussing Ontario’s minimum wage that increased from $17.20 an hour to $17.60 on October 1, 2025. That’s a 40 cent per hour increase which translates into a 2 per cent increase.
As of May 2025, the Ford government gave all Members of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) a 35 per cent increase taking their base salary from $116,550 to $157,350. Yearly increases will keep MPPs salaries at 75 per cent of what a Member of Parilament (MP) earns which is currently $209,800 (2025).
However, almost all Progressive Conservative Party MPPs get top-ups after being named a cabinet minister, parliamentary assistant or committee chair. Here’s what that looks like in dollar terms:
Premier: $282,129
Cabinet minister: $223,909
Associate minister/minister without portfolio: $187,561
Parliamentary assistant: $179,851
Leader of the official opposition (the NDP as of 2025): $244,207
Leader of a recognized party (one with official party status, minimum 12 seats): $213,524
Speaker of the House: $208,443
Chair of a standing or select committee: $179,379
In November 2025, the Ontario Living Wage Network released its official living wage by region based on the costs of basic housing, food and childcare. According to that list, Hamiltonians need to earn $22.60 an hour while folks in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) — that includes Halton Region — need to earn $27.20 per hour to meet their basic requirements. Based on a 35 hour work week that’s $49,504 gross annually.
However, since Ontario has essentially no rent controls under the Ford government, right now a tiny one-bedroom condo in either Hamilton or Halton costs over $2,000 a month — that’s $24,000 annually — plus utilities.
Based on the guidelines for affordable housing, housing should cost no more than 30 per cent of your gross income. That means in order to realistically afford that $2,000 rent means you need to earn $6,667 per month before taxes. That’s $80,000 annually.
Based on a 35-hour work week, a living wage of $22.60 per hour only get you $3,345 per month, or $40,140 annually. Minimum wage earners only get $2,464 per month or $29,568 gross annually.
So, how realistic is it to expect folks to survive on minimum wage or even a living wage? It not, given the fact that over 60,000 Hamiltonians are not earning enough to cover their basic needs. Welcome to life as one of Ontario’s working poor.
On November 22, 2023, Burlington Mayor, Marianne Meed Ward and Milton Councillor Sameera Ali, presented a motion to Halton Regional Council titled, Support for the Concept of a Basic Income Program.
Meed Ward and Ali, cite very specific reasons for establishing a Basic Income including abysmal Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates; improved health, social and economic outcomes for individuals and communities; and the fact that a Basic Income Program was tested in Hamilton, Brantford and Brant County from 2017 to 2019 before the Ford government prematurely cancelled the pilot project. Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and MacMaster University collected significant data proving the pilot improved the lives of recipients while providing much needed funds to pay for transportation, childcare and business expansions.
Tom and I explore how a Basic Income would significantly improve the social determinants of health for the majority of Ontarians. And, because of COVID and Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), it’s clear a Basic Income could be rolled out immediately — if there was the political will.
In October 2025, I contacted my Member for Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Oakville North-Burlington, Conservative MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos asking her to give me her take, and the Ford government’s take, on a Basic Income.
Effie’s response was very different from Mayor Meed Ward:
“Dear Doreen,
Thank you for taking the time to write me and share your views on a Basic Income program supported by Ontario taxpayers and discussing how best to support Ontarians and strengthen our community.
The concept of a Basic Income program has been discussed at length throughout multiple levels of government. The Parliamentary Budget Officer for our province has estimated that a program supporting Basic Income would cost Ontario nearly $40 billion alone. That makes up almost a quarter of the province’s entire budget, and that estimate was made before the recent spikes in inflation.
Our government is committed to offering sustainable support that helps people improve their circumstances—whether that be through employment, housing, or lowering the cost of living. Since taking office, we have:
· Increased the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) rates, tying them to inflation, and making sure rates keep pace with the cost of living
· Invested over $1.2 billion through the Social Services Relief Fund to support vulnerable individuals and expand emergency services
· Focused on giving frontline workers more time to focus on connecting clients with supports like job-readiness programs, housing, childcare, skills training and mental health services.
These efforts are aimed at helping Ontarians achieve security as well as prosperity while ensuring fiscal responsibility and the sustainability of essential public services.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Sincerely, Effie Triantafilopoulos, MPP Oakville North-Burlington
2525 Old Bronte Road, Unit 570
Oakville, ON L6M 4J2
Phone: (905) 825-2455
In October 2025, I asked Effie to provide me with a link to the document she referred to or at least the year that it was published. To date, I have not received a response.
While Effie claimed a Basic Income might cost $40 billion, that appears to be quoting from a federally issued document that was applying a wide birth based on the Ontario Basic Income Pilot that Effie and the Ford government cancelled. That statement also fails to take into account the total cost savings that would be realized in terms of healthcare, addiction resources, unhoused folks and incarceration of folks living in poverty in Ontario.
It costs $2,200 per month per person to provide shelter for an individual; between $4,500 to $5,000 to house an individual in jail; and about $14,000 per month to house someone in hospital.
Over 900,000 Ontarians are living on social assistance. ODSP payments are about $1,400 per month for a single person while OW recipients get about $733 a month. It’s imperative that Small Change listeners know that folks are often put on OW for many, many months before being assessed eligible for ODSP payments. MPP Effie claimed that the Ford government tied ODSP and OW payments to inflation and was making sure rates keep pace with the cost of living. Turns out that is not true.
Effie also claimed the Ford government invested over $1.2 billion through the Social Services Relief Fund to support vulnerable individuals and expand emergency services. But that was only during the COVID pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Ford government privatized the oversight of ODSP and OW programs to the Virginia-based for-profit corporation, Maximus, rather than keeping it in the public commons ensuring oversight by qualified social workers living within the affected communities. And, that begs the question, who exactly is this American-based corporation really serving — the people of Ontario or their shareholders?
Effie also claimed the Ford government is focused on giving frontline workers more time to focus on connecting clients with supports like job-readiness programs, housing, childcare, skills training and mental health services.
That is blatantly not true when the minimum wage folks hired by a private, for-profit American corporation to administrate intake forms for ODSP and OW are simply checking boxes because in most cases they lack a social work background.
The Ford government also privatized Bridging Employment Supports and Links to Work by contracting those essential employment services to Serco, an international for-profit corporation based in the United Kingdom. Serco is responsible for prisons, detention centres as well as hospitals in Australia; prisons, defence, citizen services, transport and digital solutions in the US; and pretty much everything in Britain including public housing and their disastrous National Health Service.
At the same time, the Ford government failed to invest in deeply affordable housing; has actively blocked the implementation of public $10 a day childcare; has encouraged youth to not finish high school in order to enroll in skills training knowing most won’t achieve their red seal or join a union; and has cut mental health services.
Tom and I discuss how a Basic Income — let’s say a floor of at least $2,500 per month — could help Ontarians over come the barricades the Ford government has put in the path of disabled citizens, students and workers — particularly in female dominated fields.
Effie claimed the Ford government is improving the lives of working and disabled Ontarians. Well, I can’t find anything that is going to help these folks achieve financial security let alone prosperity particularly when essential services like public healthcare and childcare are under attack. I call the Ford government’s actions blatant social murder and fiscally irresponsible.
Tom and I discuss what the Hamilton Poverty Roundtable and the Ontario Basic Income Network would like to see implemented for folks earning less than $80,000 per year. And, I specifically chose that amount because Basic Income expert and creator of the 1970s Mincome Project in Dauphin, Manitoba, Ron Hikel told me Canadians should receive a Livable Basic Income without being taxed until their combined Basic Income and earned income reached $80,000 annually.
You don’t want to miss my discussion with Tom Cooper because if the Ford government’s repressive, anti-renter, anti-worker, anti-union, anti-women and anti-disability policies don’t affect you directly, then they definitely affect someone you love or know.
*With 1 click, contact your MP, Provincial Representative, and community leaders asking them to support Basic Income here.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
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