Lance Dingman’s dreams of becoming a minister were dashed when the Ontario government cancelled its basic income pilot project a few years ago.
Dingman, 62, was one of the first Hamilton residents to be part of the program after it was announced in 2017. The program guaranteed individuals $17,000 a year and couples $24,000.
Disabled people, like Dingman, received an additional $500 more each month. For recipients who worked, their basic income was reduced by half their job earnings.
“Everything improved,” says Dingman, who, before the project, worked two jobs and received money from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). His ODSP stopped when he was on basic income but he kept both jobs. His monthly budget increased by about $400, he said.
He bought new furniture — a recliner, table and chairs. Dingman, then a student at Mohawk College, began saving to attend Redeemer University in Ancaster to fulfil his childhood dream of becoming a minister.
Then, after Doug Ford was elected, the program was cancelled in 2019. It was supposed to last three years.
“I cried,” Dingman says, remembering the cancellation.
Despite Ontario’s cancelled program, efforts to create a basic income remain active across Canada, including in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. Parliament is discussing it, too.
On October 17, the Senate Committee on National Finance began studying Bill S-233, an Act to Guarantee a National Framework for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income. The bill, sponsored by Senator Kim Pate, was introduced in the Senate in December 2021 and passed second reading in April.
NDP Member of Parliament Leah Gazan introduced an identical private member’s bill in the House of Commons on the same day Pate’s bill was introduced in the Senate. It has not reached second reading.
The Senate bill needs to pass third reading in the Upper Chamber before it can go to the House of Commons for approval.
The bill, if passed into law, requires the government to develop a framework for providing everyone in Canada who is 17 and older a guaranteed livable basic income. This includes permanent residents, temporary workers and refugee claimants.
The bill does not say when people would receive a basic income, how much it would be and whether there would be deductions based on employment.
Yves Giroux, parliamentary budget officer, told the Senate a basic income could reduce the number of Canadians living in poverty by nearly half. A 2021 Parliamentary Budget Office report estimates program costs would be $93 billion in 2025-26.
Discourage work
There are many ways to create a basic income, says Mark Stabile, a professor at INSEAD Business School who studies wealth inequality. “In its most basic form, the idea is that everybody has a certain amount of money within a population.”
There are three main basic income models, he explained. In the first, the government gives everybody the same amount of money regardless of their income.
Under the second, low-income individuals are topped up by the government, bringing their total income up to a defined minimum.
The third model differs from the second in delivery. Instead of periodic cheques, recipients receive a refundable tax credit equal to the minimum income. The Canada Child Benefit works like this, said Stabile.
“It’s like a basic income for everyone who qualifies for it,” he says.
Many worry that basic incomes discourage people from working, which would negatively impact the economy. Stabile said his research shows mothers who received the Canada Child Benefit did not work less than before.
The Parliamentary Budget Office’s 2021 report came to a similar conclusion. It said a national basic income modelled on Ontario’s pilot project would produce only a “small” reduction in hours worked.
“If you look at the data… and cash transfer trials, [they] don’t show a reduction in work, they show an increase in labor market participation,” says Jiaying Zhao, a University of British Columbia professor who has worked in poverty reduction for more than a decade.
“The vast majority of people who receive this income actually work more, they are able to get a better paying job, they are able to increase their working hours” because they are no longer in a caretaker role.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) also bolstered interest in basic income. But CERB isn’t a good comparison, says Stabile, because a livable basic income would need to be greater. CERB existed during a “unique” time where much work was disrupted. The pandemic “wasn’t the everyday world playing out,” he says.
Too good to be true
Tracey MacKinnon applied for Ontario’s basic income pilot project 13 days after losing her job. MacKinnon, 51, thought basic income was too good to be true. An ODSP recipient, she knew how bureaucratic social assistance can be.
Her initial reaction was: “How much is it going to cost me?”
In the year she received basic income, MacKinnon bought healthier food, paid down debt and went out with friends without worrying about affording movie tickets or meals. It was a “lifesaver,” she says.
MacKinnon didn’t find employment during that year. She’s unemployed today, but hopes to get her driver’s licence soon. Public transit isn’t reliable enough to get her to work, so she needs a licence to get to a job.
“No program in the world can guarantee 100 per cent positive results,” Zhao says. “That does not mean that the treatment of the program doesn’t help the majority of people and wouldn’t benefit society as a whole.”
“I just ask people to rethink what would you prefer if you were in poverty? Would you prefer to receive cash or to jump through hurdles and have all these conditionalities and go through these humiliating procedures to get social services. And that’s the current status quo.”
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