An idea whose time has come: The case for a GLBI pilot in P.E.I.
Last spring more than 50 members of the Senate of Canada urged the federal government to implement a guaranteed basic livable income program. At the same time, a special committee of the Prince Edward Island legislature called on Ottawa to join the province in creating a GLBI.
Doubters suggested a GLBI would be too costly, and too complicated. They’d prefer tinkering with the status quo. The GLBI idea seemed stalled. Faced with this hurdle, a group of Island Senators has written Premier Dennis King and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to suggest a way to end the stalemate. Why not start with a small pilot project in Prince Edward Island?
In our letter we reminded Mr. Trudeau that Prince Edward Island’s modern economy is a result of an innovative 1969 federal-provincial program called the “P.E.I. Comprehensive Development Plan.” Ever since, successive governments have used P.E.I. (population ~150,000) as a “test bed” for important innovations in agriculture, fisheries, energy from waste, wind energy and so on.
Now out of the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, P.E.I. and the federal government have another historic opportunity for social innovation. The arguments for a guaranteed livable basic income (GLBI) are well-known and are persuasive, especially in an economy like P.E.I.’s with an ageing demographic.
Last week the British Columbia government stepped away from the GLBI idea because of the plan’s perceived potential shortcomings. A pilot project in P.E.I. would test those concerns and allow the program to be adjusted as needed.
Critics may argue against an incremental approach, but we should not forget that medicare, our most successful social program, began incrementally, one province at a time starting with Saskatchewan.
In 1984, the Macdonald Royal Commission recommended a GLBI as a counterbalance to the negative effects of free trade with the United States. The Mulroney government passed free trade, but ignored the rest of Macdonald’s report.
Mr. Trudeau now has an opportunity to finish that work and, in so doing, turn the page on the economic devastation caused by COVID-19 and build a brighter future for P.E.I., and one hopes, eventually for millions of Canadians. The government response to the economic disruption caused by the pandemic was a scramble, with some covered and others not. Had a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income been in place, Canadians would have been automatically protected.
We closed our letter by urging Mr. Trudeau to begin Canada’s post-pandemic recovery with a pilot GLBI program in Prince Edward Island, the birthplace of Confederation.
A guaranteed livable basic income truly is – an idea whose time has come!
Earlier this month, following a comment about the jeers I hear when I enthusiastically mention snow in my forecast, I published a couple of sweet emails from like-minded readers.
On the heels of that, I found this very interesting email in my inbox:
“Hello Ms. Day,
I do enjoy your comments about the weather and the accompanying stories.
I recently got a video from my granddaughters, who were sledding in Bridgewater; it made me think of the hours of fun I had, engaged in the same activity. At the end of the street that I lived on in New Waterford, there was a large slag heap at the Number 12 colliery property. This mound was at least 100 feet high, 500 feet long and 100 feet wide, with sloping sides at 20 plus degrees incline. It was a coaster’s dream hill.
We had a large, corrugated metal toboggan; not one of those wooden toboggans that slid all over the place instead of where you wanted to go. It could seat six to eight kids. I always preferred to sit on the back of it, in case I needed to make a quick exit. We would haul it to the top, climb aboard and with some semblance of coordination, propel the toboggan to the edge of the precipice.
When the toboggan went over the edge, I am sure the thrill was similar to that on the Apollo flights. We were off in a flash, at breakneck speeds which usually propelled us several hundred feet (if we didn’t end in the brook, which happened periodically — hence my propensity for a rear seat). I still think of those days and the hours of fun; returning home with frozen mitts and hands to match, sitting on the radiator to warm up, if not to thaw out. Such simple pleasures.
Unfortunately, when the mine closed, the slag heap was levelled, which, in hindsight, should have been maintained. The area is now a park. It’s hard to visualize those cold, snowy days with the weather we are now experiencing. Louise Gardiner.”
Well, we are finally enjoying some wintry weather. The cold has a hold of us this week.
By Sunday, we could be in for more snow to whiten things up for Family Day.
I know many of you will be out with your families enjoying winter activities all across Atlantic Canada.
I would love to share your love of winter with everyone who might still be on the fence about it.
Please send your “winter fun photos”- old or new — to weathermail@weatherbyday.ca.