By: Corey Savard
Well this is not the conservative federal politics Canadians have been accustomed to under Stephen Harpers nine years of fiscal spending (that actually lead to a massive federal deficit) and strife with the Obama Administration that has left Canadians with inequality growing every month in a stagnant employment market.
The Ontario government announced it will be experimenting with a basic income guarantee (BIG) for Canadians that qualify. Details have not yet been released, however it be a monthly salary that is actually part of larger austerity measures that alter the welfare state with strategic cuts to social services that will go towards giving citizens independence to meet everyday expenses.
This is the welfare state Canadians deserve, without having to completely reform our capitalist society. It’s creating not only a new standard for a citizen but for a human being to have the right to live, one of the most conservative values, but without freedom to pursue happiness there is no life, only complacency on a broken social ladder that does no benefit to the state, the economy or progress.
Critics to basic income such as the late American president Ronald Reagan who said it makes people “lazy and dependent on government,” but the Mincome BIG pilot in Manitoba in the 1970s showed the exact opposite unfolded. A basic income did not affect employment growth and in fact, women were able to “buy” maternity leave, who are the most effected by poverty with disparity apparent in unpaid housework.
Canada ranks last amongst OECD countries in childcare, but universal childcare is unlikely with a national debt of over $600 billion. BIG empowers mothers that would no longer have to rely on their partner’s income, their savings, or family financial support to feed or pay for private childcare, but who a basic income truly benefits is those who have no access to either of the three support systems.
Ultimately the Ontario government’s BIG experiment must thoroughly research its effects on population centres from the rural to the Greater Toronto Area. Minority single mothers make up the majority of Toronto’s poorest households, yet are reliant on the multitude of low-skill employment available in the city. While those living in rural Ontario will not have to choose between staying in their hometown or moving to a city to look for a liveable income that has the potential slow white gentrification.
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