Cutting basic income project a betrayal, participants say

Ford government’s decision to scrap program sparks worry and fear among those enrolled

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.

“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.

“Many people in this community will become homeless. And I’ll likely be one of them.” KATHY MAHOOD OF LINDSAY, ON THE END OF THE BASIC INCOME PILOT PROJECT

Another 2,000 signed up to answer surveys as a comparison group.

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.

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.

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.

“I am feeling really badly for the people who signed up in good faith.” HUGH SEGAL

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 belief among many that it was too good to be true.

“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.

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.

FORMER CONSERVATIVE SENATOR WHO HELPED DESIGN ONTARIO PILOT PROGRAM