Singh asks feds to fund basic income project

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to pick up the tab to continue a basic income pilot project scrapped by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

The $150-million, three-year project was initiated by the province’s previous Liberal government but Ford announced this past summer that his Conservative government will end the project in March, a year ahead of schedule.

Singh says the premature end of the pilot will make it impossible to amass enough data to determine how effective a basic income program could be in lifting Canadians out of poverty.

And he says it is “morally very reprehensible” to leave the 4,000 Ontarians who are involved in the pilot in the lurch.

The pilot project provides payments to low-income people in a number of communities, including Hamilton, Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay.

Single individuals receive up to $16,989 a year while couples receive up to $24,027.

“I would like to take this opportunity today to call on the federal government to step in and fund the remainder of the basic income pilot project in Ontario,” Singh said Tuesday in a speech to the Council of Canadian Innovators.

“We can actually have a wholesome data set ... and we can look at some of the challenges and some of the benefits that are raised (from a basic income program). We can actually have evidence to make a decision as opposed to just what the Conservative government in Ontario is talking about, just hypotheses or just stereotypes.”