Majority support Ontario’s basic income plan, but many find $17,000 not enough: poll

nationalpost.com
By Jack Hauen
May 17, 2017

More than half of Canadians approve of Ontario’s basic income pilot project, but a sizeable chunk of those supporters don’t think it goes far enough.

The project will see as many as 4,000 people with low incomes in Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay receive up to $16,989 per year from the province, or $24,027 for a couple, with no strings attached, to see whether an increase in financial security bolsters job prospects and quality of life.

The poll, conducted by Campaign Research, surveyed 1,969 people and found that 53 per cent of respondents across the country supported the plan. Approval was highest among millennials aged 18 to 24 (59 per cent), Atlantic Canadians (63 per cent), and supporters of the federal NDP (63 per cent) and Liberals (62 per cent).

Campaign Research CEO Eli Yufest said he wasn’t surprised by those numbers. Atlantic provinces have four of the top five unemployment rates in the country, meaning their inhabitants are “generally more open to these sort of social programs.”

Dalhousie economics professor Lars Osberg was quick to point out that the sample size for Atlantic Canada was just 198 - taking into account the margin of error, it’s hard to definitively say that Atlantic Canada is more gung-ho about the pilot than, say, Quebec, which had 59 per cent support.

“They are generally the ones who are more under employed or unemployed. They’re generally the ones who are more recent to the workforce, they’re just graduating from school, so they’re the ones that are looking to get the most support,” he said.

Osberg believes a basic income would encourage minimum wage earners to find employment - and not kill incentive, as some have feared.

“It’s not like people like being poor and miserable,” he said. “The only way you’re going to get a better job is if you start with something.”

Generally, Green, NDP and Liberal voters like the of basic income, but many think it should go further. Of those who support the program, almost 40 per cent think the nearly $17,000 annual sum is “too little.”

“It’s not munificent,” said Osberg. “It’s well below the poverty line.”

Osberg pointed out that the survey question told respondents that welfare services would be cut in favour of basic income, but didn’t specify which ones.

 “It’s sometimes those other social supports that people really need. People who are paralyzed need wheelchairs, right?” he said. “That’s where the devil really gets to be in the details. Do you really want to say that regardless of whether I need a wheelchair or a ramp into my house, you and I get exactly the same $17,000?”

While the federal NDP have publicly called for a study on a federal basic income pilot project and the Greens are strongly in support, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he won’t implement a federal program right now.

In the meantime, Yufest said Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals are “potentially siphoning some of those NDP and Green supporters into their camp.

“Whether or not the federal Liberals, or any federal party, decides to pick it up at the federal level waits to be seen on how things work in Ontario,” said Yufest. Provincially speaking, “if it does go well, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of the key planks of the Liberal electoral platform.”