Robin Boadway is the Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Economic Theory at Queen's University, and a Fellow of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations. He studied at RMC, Oxford and Queen's and has been a visiting scholar at Universities of Chicago, Oxford and Louvain.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA, TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2020—Today 50 members of the Senate of Canada from across affiliations and regions wrote to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister commending them for the government’s actions to date and calling for further evolution of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) in order to implement a minimum basic income.

Charitable programs rob people of dignity and do nothing to lift them out of poverty, studies show. Their proliferation masks bigger problems.

Children are socialized at a young age to believe that giving to charity is a venerable, altruistic practice. We are regularly inundated with advertisements to support children in the developing world.

The following has been approved by OBIN members (Jan 2020).

The goal of OBIN is to build awareness of and support for a Basic Income in Ontario among the general public and key decision-makers in the political sector.

News Release - 26 Feb 2020 - Ottawa, ON - Last night,  Senator Kim Pate urged Senators to examine and take action to support the implementation of guaranteed livable income in Canada. Nearly five decade ago, the  Senate issued an urgent call for a nation-wide  guaranteed livable income. 

In the wake of COVID-19, people across Canada are struggling to make ends meet or finding themselves in precarious positions. From the get-go, too many of those most marginalized and impoverished did not have the resources to follow public health directives.

Since then, vast numbers of Canadians have been laid off, others have shut their businesses — and many still risk going to work because they can’t afford to take the financial hit. The federal government is expecting four million Canadians to apply for emergency job loss benefits.

'Let’s hear where party leaders stand on the idea, because as work becomes more precarious, more Canadians will need help, no strings attached.'

When Canadians head to the polls on October 21, they should ask themselves how Canada’s political parties will tackle inequality.

Canada once again may be missing a historic opportunity. The COVID-19 pandemic is a flashpoint, a situation that begs for a basic income to address the cracks through which millions of Canadians continue to fall through. And yes, protect those workers who have recently lost their employment and household income.

When the federal government unveiled its plan to provide Canadians whose employment has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with a monthly income of $2,000, members of P.E.I.'s Working Group for a Livable Income saw something that looked a lot like what they and others have been trying to bring to P.E.I. for years: a basic guaranteed income.

THESE days no one should need convincing that our economic well-being can be affected by unexpected shocks. Sometimes these shocks are due to big events, such as the coronavirus pandemic or the great recession in 2008. Sometimes they are due to changes in personal circumstances, such as illness, job loss or the death of a provider.