Unconditional, Universal Basic Income changes lives

Anecdotal and statistical evidence from Canadian Basic Income pilots prove without exception, a well-funded, unconditional program lifts people out of poverty and enables them to change their lives.

Humans of Basic Income portrait series by Jessie Golem. Photo credit: Jessie Golem

Last October I attended an all-day forum called Basic Income – It Still Matters. The event was organized and hosted by the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction (HRPR).

Kathleen Wynne, the former Premier of Ontario who implemented the Ontario Basic Income pilot (OBI), was an engaging, informed and humorous opening speaker setting the tone and laying the groundwork for those who followed.

The OBI pilot provided monthly payments to 4,000 participants from Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay. Payments were based on the number of people in the family and their employment status. Those working either part-time or full-time saw their OBI payments decreased by $0.50 for every dollar earned.

The OBI pilot was testing whether a basic income would help people living on low incomes better meet their basic needs by improving food and housing security; lowering stress and anxiety; and improving education, training and employment participation.

The Mincome Basic Income (MBI) pilot (1974 to 1978) implemented by NDP premier Ed Schreyer and Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau in Dauphin, Manitoba had a very different mandate. That pilot was proving whether people receiving a BI would leave, stay or re-enter the workforce. Overwhelmingly, the evidence proved that people want to work.

Like the OBI pilot, the Mincome experiment ended when PC Howard Pawley became premier. Political scientist Ron Hikel, who devised and oversaw the BI pilot, was instructed to put the 18,000 boxes of raw data from the project into a warehouse. That data remained untouched until 2008 when health economist Evelyn Forget found the boxes and began analyzing the contents.

Anecdotal evidence from both pilots conclusively prove that without exception, a well-funded, unconditional BI program lifts people out of poverty and enables them to change their lives.

Despite campaigning on the promise to leave the OBI pilot in place, premier Doug Ford promptly cancelled it within a month of taking office. That was over five years ago.

Wynne admitted that she regrets not starting the OBI pilot earlier. A primary reason was the way the Ford government dashed the hopes and dreams of OBI recipients who by all accounts were clearly thriving as documented in the McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and HRPR report, Southern Ontario’s Basic Income Experience.

The information Wynne shared was eye-opening. The national cost of poverty is a staggering $80 billion annually. Ironically, the cost of implementing a Basic Income (BI) in conjunction with current social programs would also be $80 billion annually. But isolate the actual cost of a universal, unconditional BI and it’s only $40 billion – with social programs already in place, and needed to enhance a BI, accounting for the remaining $40 billion.

Professors Beth Martin, Carlton University, and Tom McDowell, TMU, explained the OBI data showed that by giving individuals $17,000 annually, couples $24,000 a year and individuals with disabilities an additional $6,000 over and above their annual OBI payment, poverty levels went down significantly.

Part of that can be attributed to the fact that these OBI rates were 66 per cent above Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payment amounts and a full 96 per cent higher than people on Ontario Works (OW) were receiving. It’s worth noting that most people receiving OW are actually individuals unable to work due to a disability who are waiting for approval to move onto the ODSP.

For other recipients, OBI payments gave them autonomy in a rapidly changing, increasingly precarious labour market.

Martin, McDowell and their colleagues summarized the findings in Life on Basic Income: Stories from Southern Ontario and I challenge you to find a single negative outcome.

Basic Income Canada Youth Network (BICYN) co-chairs Kendall David and Chloe Halpenny created the impactful 26-page zine, Room to Dream detailing the history of the OBI pilot then integrating research with the lived experience and original art of OBI participants.

Room to Dream should be read, and discussed, by every book club; found in every elementary classroom; and required reading for every high school, college and university student.

It should also be mandatory reading for those ‘BI activists’ who are trying to do the ‘right thing for the deserving poor,’ but have never actually spoken with anyone outside of their privileged bubble. Room to Dream may in fact be the book that helps do-gooders realize there are no ‘undeserving poor’ because poverty isn’t a personal problem, it’s a political one.

BICYN also created the Basic Income Bought Me Campaign to answer the most asked question, “How would people spend a basic income?”

According to the BICYN website, “It’s a question that advocates hear a lot. Sometimes it comes from a place of skepticism or stereotypes, but also genuine curiosity. For those without firsthand experience, basic income can feel a bit mysterious. Understanding what people purchase when they have access to reliable income - and the effects these purchases have on their lives - can make a vague policy idea feel a lot more tangible.”

#BasicIncomeBoughtMe uses social media to highlight how 68 OBI participants spent their basic income payments and the powerful force that reliable monthly money can be.

Make room on your book club reading list, sooner rather than later, for The Case for Basic Income by Jamie Swift and Elaine Power. Swift and Power provide a detailed overview of BI while pointing out that corporations and governments are not as enamoured with this policy as the people who receive it.

BI offers recipient the freedom to pursue the kind of work that they value rather than work that simply lines corporate pockets. It’s the freedom of choice that has capitalists fighting against not only a BI, but also a living wage, pro-rated benefits, co-operative housing, rent caps, co-operative farms and stores, expanded social services and centering policy on human interests.

NDP MPP Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West-Nepean) spoke to those in attendance about her plans to table a private member’s bill at Queens Park. The anti-poverty researcher notes the rapid roll out of the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) shows that a BI can be expeditiously enacted and implemented.

This private member’s bill will hopefully add another layer to the various levels of government calling for a BI.

Which brings us to December 16, 2021 when Senator Kim Pate and NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced Bills S-233 an C-223 respectively. This is the first coordinated effort for a BI from within the House of Commons and the Senate. When passed, these bills will establish a national framework for an unconditional, guaranteed, livable BI for everyone over 17 years of age including temporary workers, permanent residents and refugee claimants.

These bills also ensure that services and benefits addressing exceptional health or disability needs remain unaltered.

Want to do more? Then, sign this UBI petition asking Senators to send Bill S-233 to the House, where, if passed, will become law.

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*Although this article uses the term Basic Income, I prefer to call these unconditional, universal payments a Standard of Living. That term better reflects the fact that everyone deserves a decent standard of living that better ensures access to all human rights including affordable and accessible housing; nutritious and culturally appropriate food; freedom from discrimination in their places of work; and the freedom to choose ethical work over work that literally, and figuratively, impoverishes lives.