Review sought for cancelled basic income pilot
Lawyer asks courts to overturn decision to end research project
In yet another case before the courts seeking to overturn a decision by the Ford government, a Lindsay lawyer is now asking for a judicial review of the cancellation of the basic income pilot project. Mike Perry, who i s representing the same four pilot participants in a proposed class-action lawsuit, said papers have been filed on their behalf for the review and the matter is scheduled to be heard in Lindsay on Oct. 16.
“It was a three-year commitment and the government needs to honour their commitment,” said Perry of the decision to wind down the research project a year early, at the end of the fiscal year next March.
“This out-of-the-blue deci- sion to cancel the basic income pilot . . . had a horrible impact on people here in Lindsay” where 2,000 were signed up, said Perry, who is assisting the recipients pro bono. “Plans were made that you can’t just put back in the bottle in seven months,” said Perry, who is also a social worker.
The basic income pilot project, which began under the previous Liberal government in April 2017, was to last until 2020. It will now end after two years, on March 31. It enrolled recipients in Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay, providing them with an income of $16,989 — or up to $24,027 for couples — while researchers studied the impact of the stable, enhanced funds on their lives and health.
Before the election, a senior official with the Ford campaign promised a PC government would see the project through to the end. In announcing the winddown date last week, the prov- ince’s minister of community and social services said “a research project that helps less than 4,000 people is not the answer and provides no hope to the nearly 2 million Ontarians who are trapped in the cycle of poverty.”
“We are winding down the basic income research project in a compassionate way,” said Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod. On Wednesday, MacLeod’s press secretary said “our focus now is to support a smooth transition for each individual.”
Derek Rowland said the “participants will receive a phone call and a followup letter from the ministry” during the transition and that “the government will make sure that the appropriate supports are in place. For example, if someone left Ontario Works to join the basic income project, they will be reinstated to that program, if eligible.”
But Perry said the agreement the recipients signed on to did not have an “escape clause . . . the government does not get to just arbitrarily decide a sevenmonth termination.
“The case isn’t about ‘compassion’ — it’s about fairness, honouring commitments and treating people properly,” he said in a telephone interview.
It remains unclear what will happen to the research gathered to date, which includes a survey of all participants during the intake process.
Upwards of 40 researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital and McMaster University are involved.