Basic income recipients feel shock, betrayal at Ford government’s surprise move to cancel pilot program

By LAURIE MONSEBRAATENSocial Justice Reporter

Wed., Aug. 1, 2018

People participating in Ontario’s basic income pilot project, who were beginning to breathe easier and plan for the future, are feeling betrayed after the Ford government pulled the plug Tuesday, just over a year into the three-year experiment.

“How can they do this to people? We are not numbers. We are not statistics. We are human beings,” said Hamilton participant Jodi Dean, 45.

Jodi Dean, left, and Kathy Mahood are among almost 4,000 low-income individuals and families in Hamilton-Brant, Thunder Bay and Lindsay who have been receiving up to $14,000 a year, or $24,000 for couples, under the previous Liberal government’s basic income pilot.

“They did this without even looking at the changes in people’s lives. They just decided it wasn’t working. How and on what basis did they make that decision?” she asked.

Dean, her husband and their three children are among almost 4,000 low-income individuals and families in Hamilton-Brant, Thunder Bay and Lindsay who have been receiving up to $14,000 a year, or $24,000 for couples, under the previous Liberal government’s initiative. Another 2,000 signed up to answer surveys as a comparison group.

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The goal was to see whether unconditional cash support could boost health, education and housing for people on social assistance or living on low incomes. The government was planning to use the information to guide future policy on how to support all Ontarians living in poverty.

The Ontario experiment was North America’s first and largest basic income trial in more than 40 years, and had garnered worldwide attention as researchers watched to see if it could trim bureaucracy, cut poverty and mitigate precarious employment.

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Media from the United States, the United Kingdom and as far away as South Korea had come to Ontario to report on the project.

But the story has taken a dramatic turn with this week’s cancellation.

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Kathy Mahood in Lindsay, where almost everyone living in poverty is enrolled in the test, is devastated.

“Many people in this community will become homeless. And I’ll likely be one of them,” said the 54-year-old woman, who fell into deep poverty after a work-related back injury and the death of her husband two years ago.

“I’m afraid. I’m really afraid. And I don’t know what to do,” Mahood said Wednesday after a sleepless night. Participants with disabilities, like Mahood, received an additional $5,000 a year as part of the project.

Payments were almost twice as much as what Ontarians receive from welfare, although about two-thirds of basic income participants were working in low-income jobs when they joined the project.

Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod told reporters Wednesday the province was “winding down” the $50-million-a-year initiative because it doesn’t match the government’s focus on jobs.

However, she stressed participants will be treated “ethically and humanely.”

“If they are eligible for Ontario Works, for example, we’ll repatriate them on to that program,” or help with the Ontario Student Assistance Program, she added.

Twitter was flooded with commentary about the project’s demise and concern over the fate of those who took a chance to participate, despite widespread belief among many that it was too good to be trueand assurances the Ford government wouldn’t kill it.

“The basic income pilot offered hope, dignity and a way out of poverty,” tweeted Kwame McKenzie, CEO of the Wellesley Institute health think-tank and director of health equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

“There will be critiques of the decision to cancel it. But I woke this morning more worried about the health impacts on participants. This is a high-risk situation,” added McKenzie, the former government’s special adviser on the project.

In an interview, McKenzie noted that sudden shocks to vulnerable people increase the chance of heart attacks and of developing high blood pressure, and can worsen the prognosis of chronic diseases, including cancer. Sudden shocks are also linked to the onset of schizophrenia, anxiety and addictions. Suicides are often linked to recent social trauma, he added.

“We have given a real shock to a bunch of people and we need to be careful about how we treat them,” he said.

Rather than trigger these risks, McKenzie said he hoped the Ford government would allow for a gradual phase-out period to give participants time to adjust.

An American philanthropist is bankrolling a basic income trial in the San Francisco area, and McKenzie said it “would be a miracle if somebody showed up” here to continue Ontario’s pilot — not only for the participants, but for the knowledge that could be learned.

But former Conservative senator Hugh Segal, who helped Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government design the Ontario pilot, was skeptical.

“Very few philanthropists write cheques for a hundred million to subsidize government,” he said.

Segal’s thoughts Wednesday were also on participants.

“I am feeling really badly for the people who signed up in good faith, on the basis of my discussion paper’s principle, and the government’s assurance that ‘no one would be worse off’ for signing up,” he said.

“Some people who enrolled in school or rented a modestly better place may well be hurt. My discussion paper’s unwitting role in their deception is deeply troubling,” he said.

However, some observers say even if the three-year pilot succeeded in reducing health costs, homelessness and other problems plaguing the poor, the general public would never have supported a program that that sent money to people with no strings attached.

The premature end of Ontario’s trial and a decision last spring by Finland’s right-leaning government to move away from basic income when that country’s two-year pilot project ends later this year, are setbacks for other countries interested in the idea.

“We are at the planning stage for pilots in Scotland, so we were looking to Ontario as a great learning case,” said Jamie Cooke, head of RSA Scotland, an international think-tank that is helping the Scottish government develop a basic income feasibility study for a possible trial in 2020.

“There is frustration and anger over the wasted opportunity, especially since it appears it was cancelled for purely political reasons,” he said.

But worldwide interest in basic income will continue, Cooke said.

“It’s a really disappointing loss, but it is just one battle in a much larger war,” he said. “This is a long-standing campaign and there is still a lot we can learn from what has already happened in Ontario.”

Sheila Regehr, chair of the Basic Income Canada Network, a national advocacy organization that has been pushing the idea for more than a decade, is also undaunted.

“It’s a blow for Ontario because we had this idea that Ontario could lead the rest of the country. But there is opportunity, too,” she said. “There is still a lot of misunderstanding, especially with this new government. Maybe we can work with them to help them understand it better.”

With files from Rob Ferguson

Laure Monsebraaten is a Toronto-based reporter covering social justice. Follow her on Twitter: @lmonseb

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