Basic income in Canada

Universal basic income in Canada refers to the debate and trials with basic income, negative income and related welfare systems in Canada. The debate goes back to the 1930s when the social credit movement had ideas around those lines. Two major basic income experiments have been conducted in Canada. Firstly the Mincome experiment in Manitoba 1974–1979, and secondly the Ontario Basic Income Pilot Project in 2017. The latter was intended to last for three years but only lasted a few months due to its subsequent cancellation by the then newly-elected Conservative government.

History

William Aberhart, Premier of Alberta, was inspired by Major C. H. Douglas Social Credit theory and tried to implement a basic income for Albertans during the 1930s. However, he was thwarted in his attempts by the Federal Government of the time.

In 1970 the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare issued a white paper which both emphasized the ability of NIT to decrease poverty but at the potential expense of decreased work incentive. Specifically, the white paper stated:

Following this stance, the National Council of Welfare advocated in 1976 for the implementation of the guaranteed annual income in Canada.

In order to determine real-life responses to NIT implementation, the US government undertook four income maintenance experiments; they transpired in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (1968–1972), rural areas of North Carolina and Iowa (1970–72), Seattle and Denver (1970–78), and Gary Indiana (1971–1974). These prospective large-scale field studies were truly remarkable due to their size and the fact that families were randomized to either an experimental arm (i.e., NIT) or control arm (usual tax practice). Three major objectives of these interventions were to measure the labour supply response of NIT recipients, understand the effect of varying the base guarantee level and tax rate, and to make a better estimate of the cost of implementing such a program.Rossi, H. & Lyall, K. (1976). ''Reforming public welfare: A critique of the negative income tax experiment''. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Mincome

In Canada, an analogous experiment called Mincome took place in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba, between 1974 and 1979. Importantly, the city of Dauphin served as a saturation site, since all 10,000 community members were eligible to participate (the elderly and disabled were exempt from the four American NIT experiments); four foci of Mincome were an economic arm (examining labour response), a sociologic research division (examining the family formation and community cohesion), an administrative programme, and a statistical division.Forget, E. (2008). ''The town with no poverty: A history of the North American Guaranteed Annual Income''. Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba. Unfortunately, the ambitious project ran into significant budgetary problems early on and neither the newly elected Progressive Conservative government in Ottawa nor the Tory government in Manitoba felt strongly about providing further funding. As stated by Hum and Simpson:Hum, D. & Simpson, W. (2001). A guaranteed annual income? From Mincome to the millenium. ''Policy Options, 12,'' 78-82.

Ultimately the Dauphin data which was collected at great expense to the taxpayers and time from participants (in the first social experiment ever conducted in Canada) remains largely unexamined. However, some of the participant interviews were released and provide support for the efficacy of NIT. For instance, Amy Richardson, a mother of six whose husband was disabled said:

Doreen Henderson, a stay at home mother whose husband worked as a janitor also appreciated the benefits of NIT; she said:

In general, the average reduction in workforce in the US sites was about 13%, with most of the reduction in labour from secondary (typically the wives) and tertiary (typically older children) earners as opposed to the primary earner (usually the husbands). In Mincome the reduction in work effort was more modest: 1% for men and 3% for wives. It is important to remember that when the experiments were conducted, it was less socially acceptable for women to work outside the home. According to Rossi and Lyall only 40% of wives who participated in the experiment worked outside the home and their earning power was low due to limited and discontinuous work experience. As such, the authors contend that wives' labour involvement was marginal and when faced with competing tasks of looking after the household and raising children, the additional income provided by NIT was sufficient to justify an exit from the labor market. However, this phenomenon was predominantly observed in Caucasian wives whereas African American and Hispanic women exhibited a small increase in labor force participation. The decrease in labor involvement of teenage children was correlated to higher rates of high school graduation. A potential explanation is that the additional income from government assistance meant that young adults could stay in school as opposed to joining the workforce in order to support their families. This has the potential positive long-term effect of allowing youth to find higher-wage employment. In summary, the work supply response to NIT was very complex; however, data from the American studies would argue against a dramatic decline in the labour force.

Basic income in Canada today (2010–)

As of 2014, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), the Green Party of Canada, the Pirate Party of Canada, provincial party Québec Solidaire and former conservative senator Hugh Segal advocate for basic income in Canada. Mike Redmond, former leader of the New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island, supports a basic income pilot project in Prince Edward Island.

In November 2013, a poll commissioned by the Trudeau Foundation found that 46% of Canadians favoured and 42% opposed replacing current economic assistance with a guaranteed national income.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new trial in March 2016.

Ontario 2017 Basic Income Pilot Project

In Ontario's Basic Income Pilot Project had a budget of $150,000,000, the 4,000 participants received up to $16,989 per year for a single person, less 50% of any earned income
$24,027 per year for a couple, less 50% of any earned income, in monthly installments.

Although the incoming Progressive Conservative government had promised to maintain the three-year pilot program, its cancellation was announced in August 2018, 10 months after the previous Liberal administration started distributing payments.

Minister of Children and Youth Services Lisa MacLeod said the decision was taken due to high costs, and because ministry staff indicated that "the program didn't help people become 'independent contributors' to the economy.".

In fact, most anecdotal reports in the popular press do not indicate that entrepreneurship was a preferred goal for participants, (although one anecdotal report described a couple who kept their existing business afloat with the program's payments).

About 70% of participants were already employed when entering the program, in low-paid positions which made it difficult to pay expenses such as rent and food.

Journalistic reports tended to focus on non-entrepreneurial participant outcomes contributing to personal stability, such as augmenting disability payments, paying for education and student loans, purchasing new eyeglasses while remaining in a low-paid museum job, paying for transportation costs (such as bus fare to work rather than walking for an hour and a half), and purchasing necessary items as fresh produce, hospital parking passes, "winter clothes they couldn't reviouslyafford and staying warm", etc.

Anti-poverty groups were "stunned" by the decision to discontinue the program. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty declared that the decision "demonstrates a reckless disregard for the lives of nearly 4,000 people." Local politicians in Hamilton passed a resolution "denouncing" discontinuation of the program.

In contrast, from the viewpoint of the current government, this basic income pilot program is considered an ineffective use of resources, because the first priority for addressing poverty needs to be getting all residents off of welfare rolls and into employment, not providing assistance to people who are already working.

Research into effective interventions for individuals suffering poverty and insecurity as a result of low-paid or precarious employment can be challenging, and researcher Kwame McKenzie noted that it is not easy to get 6,000 people to participate in a study. Ending the study early will make it difficult to gather conclusive data regarding the research goal of determining "what happens when low-wage, precarious workers receive a financial top-up."

One op-ed writer opined that the study was being ended early due to fears that the results would show that the program worked.

Payments concluded in March 2019.

British Columbia Basic Income Expert Panel Report

The British Columbia Basic Income Expert Panel Report

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