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is an Associate Professor in the School of Health Administration and the Director of the Food Policy Lab at AV俱乐部. She is also a member of the Healthy Populations Institute.
Ontario鈥檚 minister of children, community and social services just announced that the Canadian province鈥檚 landmark basic income pilot project . Lisa MacLeod did not offer an alternative for moving forward, apart from a vague mention of a 鈥�.鈥�
The project has been running since April 2017. It reached full enrolment with 4,000 residents receiving the basic income payment in three communities: the Hamilton area, the Thunder Bay area and Lindsay. More than 2,000 additional individuals are volunteering as participants in the study . They are helping to serve as a comparison group, to measure the differential effects for those in the program.
The Ontario pilot had already diverged to some extent from . A 鈥渇ull鈥� basic income model is universal. It is based on the principle of targeting all individuals in a community unconditionally, regardless of income, without clawbacks.
Participants in Ontario received up to $16,989 per year for a single person, less 50 per cent of any earned income. Couples received $24,027 per year, less 50 per cent of any earned income. Up to an additional $6,000 per year was provided for a person with a disability.
MacLeod later admitted that the cancellation of the pilot was a . In rationalizing the decision, she explained that the program was a disincentive to participants becoming 鈥渋ndependent contributors to the economy.鈥� She went on: 鈥淲e want to get people back on track and be productive members of society where that鈥檚 possible.鈥�
This is poppycock.
鈥業gnorant鈥� decision
Caring about the economy and society means caring about the outcome of the basic income pilot.
The Ontario Progressive Conservative government鈥檚 decision is ignorant of the considerable thought and analysis on basic income as a promising policy solution for improving lives and strengthening the economy, ideas that come from the .
One of the best proxies that we have for understanding the effects of a basic income policy from an economic perspective in Canada is the guaranteed income received by seniors.
As part of the program of research led by Valerie Tarasuk at the University of Toronto, we have been studying the and its detrimental effects on health.
At the University of Calgary, Herb Emery and Lynn McIntyre studied the effect of a basic income guarantee on seniors鈥� food insecurity and health. Remarkably, they found that food insecurity rates at people鈥檚 65th birthday as a result of seniors鈥� income supports.
The research team also compared seniors鈥� guaranteed income with conditional income assistance programs. They found that the income guarantee is beneficial to both physical and mental health, .
Bolsters economy
Addressing poverty through a basic income is not just 鈥渢he right thing to do.鈥� It also . As Emery and McIntyre stated in their policy paper (emphasis added):
What is often not well understood is the efficiency case for addressing the root causes of poverty, and that poverty itself is a symptom of market failure. Symptoms of poverty, such as homelessness or household food insecurity, in this context, are not solely the product of an inadequate income level, but instead a lack of consumption insurance to address budget shocks 鈥� unexpected decreases in income or purchasing power of income. The ability to buffer against budget shocks, to maintain consumption levels when the budget is unexpectedly constrained, is a product of a surplus in the budget or the adjustable discretionary expenditure, and access to credit or assets.
In other words, people with more income don鈥檛 just have more money to spend. They can also maintain their purchasing power through hard times. They can stay their course as consumers 鈥攁nd keep spending, in the economy 鈥攅ven when unexpected household expenses arise, as they always do.
If the effect on private consumption isn鈥檛 convincing enough, PROOF research by Tarasuk and others has examined how poverty and food insecurity are associated with many other adverse health consequences that increase government expenditures for health care, a serious economic concern in Ontario and elsewhere.
Total annual health-care costs for severely food-insecure households are those that are food secure.
The evidence to date is that a basic income guarantee can be an effective strategy to reduce food insecurity and improve health outcomes, . The evaluation of the Ontario pilot would have offered crucial evidence to help us further examine this promising strategy.
Hugh Segal, former Conservative senator and voice of clarity on basic income in Canada, the cancellation of the pilot. His earlier for Ontario was evidence-informed and practical.
Segal summarized the economic case for the pilot, and for addressing inadequate income, in his Globe and Mail op-ed:
It is obvious that a failure to reduce the gap between rich and poor is a threat to a balanced economic model that accommodates growth, investment, profits and equality of opportunity. 鈥� Looking at the cost of the pilot project is fair enough 鈥� but frankly, simplistic.
We don鈥檛 need simplistic approaches to pressing societal issues. We need ways forward that best protect the vitality of our economies as well as the people and communities who participate in them. We need thoughtful policy-making based on good evidence, and the Ontario decision robs us of that.
For more PROOF research and fact sheets summarizing the evidence, visit .
Read the on The Conversation.
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