Thank you to everyone who attended OBIN's AGM on Saturday. There is plenty to be excited about going forward and we thank everyone for their continued involvement.

AGM

The AGM saw lots of basic income advocates come to hear about all that we've been up to over the past year. After our business meeting concluded we heard from Senator Kim Pate, Ken Yang of UBI Works, Sheila Regehr of Basic Income Canada Network, and OBIN's own Jim Mulvale spoke about the Green Resilience Project.

A video of the AGM and the minutes are forthcoming and will be available on the OBIN website soon.

Federal Advocacy Week

Coalition Canada will be holding their second Federal MP Advocacy week from Monday, February 28th to Friday, March 4th. If you are interested in participating, please contact Barbara Boraks at [email protected].

Advocating with MPs is an important way to build the political will for a Basic Income Guarantee. Preparing well for your meeting is also an excellent way to gain knowledge of Basic Income, and helps you answer questions or concerns that the MP might have about a Basic Income Guarantee.

Your participation will involve sending out the 'ask' for a meeting (email template will be provided), as well as familiarizing yourself with information in the Coaltion's FAQ as well as the 'Cases' series. The Coalition suggests, where possible, having 2 people in the meeting. The second person is usually a topic expert who can be provided by Coalition Canada.

Please let us know if you are interested in taking part. A zoom meeting will be held with Barbara with everyone interested so we can discuss any questions you have. Time is a bit of the essence so please respond ASAP. This week is very important. Please consider participating.

Caterina Lindman, OBIN Internal Relations, and Barbara Brooks, OBIN External Relations

Green Resilience Project

In March 2021, a group of individuals and organizations working in climate change and income security received funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund to organize a series of community conversations on the topic of Livelihoods, Incomes and Community Resilience for a Net-Zero Canada. The project is designed to:

• Explore and document the links between community resilience, income security and the shift to a low-carbon economy through a series of 25 to 35 conversations facilitated by local community partners;
• Get community perspectives on the ways in which income security policies (like a basic income) can help build resilience and encourage local action on all the aspects of the climate crisis—from the response to local climate impacts to the transition out of fossil fuel employment;
• Build conversation and understanding across the climate and energy, income security and labour communities, and with those who are too often left out of policy discussions and decisions;
• Serve as a starting point for local advocacy, collaboration and next steps.

They plan to hold a virtual community conversation for Hamilton organizations & interested individuals on the afternoon of Friday, February 4th from 1:00pm-3:30pm

Along with leaders from the Green Resilience Project, they'll be joined by special guest, Jamie Cooke, head of the Royal Society for Arts, Commerce & Engineering in Scotland. Jamie is one of Scotland's most influential basic income advocates, and was a key local organizer for the recent COP26 international summit on climate change that was held in Glasgow. 

They hope you'll be able to join us for this afternoon session, and bring your thoughts on the intersections between climate justice and income security in Canada. 

Please confirm your attendance by clicking here. 

In Closing

We always appreciate hearing from you! Ideas, comments, etc. are needed to fuel our enthusiasm.

You can stay informed on our progress via our monthly Minutes.

Also, please consider donating. We appreciate anything and everything people can do to help.

Ontario Basic Income Network
http://www.obin.ca/