The provincial government has established a research team to explore the implications of ensuring a basic income for British Columbians.
The government has committed $4 million over the next two years to allow a team of three researchers to carry out the research to formulate a potential basic income pilot project in B.C.
The research team is led by David Green, with UBC’s Vancouver School of Economics. He is joined by Jonathan Rhys Kesselman, with Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy, and Lindsay Tedds, with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
Ontario is currently involved in a three-year basic income pilot project within a study area that includes Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsey, a financial commitment of $150 million.
To qualify as an Ontario project participant, a single person would need to make less than $34,000 a year and couple less than $48,000, with the minimum payment being nearly $17,000 for an eligible single person.
The unconditional income supplement is paid without a means test or work requirement.
Basic income payments are designed to be streamlined compared to the traditional social assistance services and aimed to encourage people to seek work without the disincentive of losing social supports, essentially by offering an upfront affordable living stipend will produce savings in poverty, health care and social service related government costs.
The concept of giving low income earners greater assistance in this way is to improve their ability to provide for themselves and their families, reduce health care costs, encourage people to seek out work without fear of being penalized and reduce the negative stigma associated with applying for social assistance.
Green said his team will assess how others provinces and countries have approached the basic income principle, and how a pilot project might best be applied in B.C.
The researchers will also access the impact of advances in technology and automation in the workforce on the future labour market for the next several decades.
In the Ontario pilot project, their provincial government is reviewing the success achieved in such research metrics as food security, stress, mental health, health and health-care usage, housing stability, educaton and employment.
The study commitment was part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement struck between the NDP and Green Party caucus to enable the NDP to form a minority government.
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