Basic Income WHY?

The COVID-19 crisis has had a devastating impact on our communities as we know them, and it has exposed the reality that the Canadian social safety net is no longer working. Community residents are looking for help — help that preserves people’s dignity and provides adequate means to support for themselves and their families. That help should come quickly and it should be simple to access. Many have called for a Basic Income as a better way forward for all to ensure better health outcomes, adequate housing, nutrition, increased educational attainment and child development as well as ensuring positive psychological well-being.

The environment, our health, and economic well-being are inseparable. That's why Jagmeet Singh and the NDP are fighting to ensure all Canadians have the income they need to stay healthy. New Democrats fought for and delivered on enhancements to the CERB, pushed for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), Paid Sick Leave for every Canadian with the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB), and we have done this by holding the Liberal Government to account for everyday people.

New Democrats continue to fight for Canadians with the leadership of Leah Gazan, whose Motion 46 in the House of Commons calls for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income.

Join:
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh
NDP MP Leah Gazan
NDP MPP Suze Morrison
Public Health Nurse and Urban Health Research Chair, Professor Josephine Wong
City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam
Toronto Centre NDP Candidate, Brian Chang

On October 6, 2020, the Ottawa West-Nepean NDP hosted a virtual townhall on basic income, with special guests Leah Gazan (MP for Winnipeg Centre and sponsor of Motion 46), Sheila Regehr (chair of the Basic Income Canada Network), and Chloe Halpenny (founding member and co-chair of the Basic Income Canada Youth Network).

National Post - Raymond J. de Souza - 15 October 2020

This is a debate we should be having now, as the pandemic has caused the ground to shift on unemployment and government assistance.

In honour of the 70th birthday of Hugh Segal this week (Oct. 13), might I recommend reading my friend’s latest book, Bootstraps Need Boots: One Tory’s Lonely Fight to End Poverty in Canada. Not as a gift to him, but as a gift to readers.

It is one of the more unusual political memoirs, organized around a policy idea rather than a curriculum vitae, and one of the more entertaining — and, in these troubled days, uplifting. Hugh called himself, in an earlier book, a “happy warrior” and a measure of happiness is most welcome now that we have warriors aplenty.

News Release - Senators Lankin, McCallum, and Pate - Ottawa - 23 September 2020

Senators Lankin, McCallum and Pate hosted a meeting with Indigenous women leaders and MP Leah Gazan to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous women in Manitoba and the place of guaranteed livable basic income in redressing systemic racism and inequality.

Most Canadians want Basic Income.

UBI Works - 23 September 2020

On Sept 23rd the federal government announced its priorities in the Throne Speech as the country enters a second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The speech included numerous new announcements to tweak and expand the social safety net, prioritizing employment insurance and direct supports for businesses - but no mention of a basic income.