Ontario minister admits she broke election promise when she axed basic income project

Thestar.com
August 1, 2018
Rob Ferguson

Conceding she broke a Progressive Conservative election promise by axing a Wynne-era pilot program aimed at finding a new path for people on welfare, Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod says she made a “tough decision.”

The basic income pilot project involving about 6,000 people in the Hamilton, Brant, Lindsay, and Thunder Bay areas was a “disincentive” for people to find jobs, MacLeod told reporters Wednesday.

Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod during question period at Queen's Park on Aug. 1, 2018 one day after she announced that a planned increase to welfare rates would be cut in half and the basic income pilot project would be killed. “When you’re encouraging people to accept money without strings attached it really doesn’t send a message that our ministry and our government wants to send,” she said Wednesday.

“When you’re encouraging people to accept money without strings attached it really doesn’t send a message that our ministry and our government wants to send,” she said.

“We want to get people back on track and make them productive members of society where that’s possible.”

The three-year pilot project, which cost $50 million annually, was designed by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government with help from former PC senator Hugh Segal. It gave single participants just under $17,000 annually and couples just over $24,000 in hopes the money -- about double standard welfare rates -- would boost their odds of finding employment and improving their housing, health and nutrition.

Critics of the cancellation said the fledgling program enabled participants to move into apartments and go back to college, university or other training programs to lift themselves off social assistance.

“This minister is callously dashing their hopes for the future,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. “This minister is out of touch. She has no idea what people living in poverty are facing.”

But MacLeod insisted the program wasn’t living up to its promise, although she could not provide any details or analysis when she announced the decision Tuesday. On the same day she also revealed a planned 3 per cent welfare increase for September would be cut in half.

“The decision (was) in the campaign and you find the realities when you’re in government,” MacLeod said before she walked away from reporters’ questions for the second day in a row.

During the campaign, a spokeswoman for PC Leader Doug Ford said “nope” when asked if the basic income pilot would be scrapped, and added “we look forward to seeing the results.”

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the decision on the pilot program -- leaving participants with an uncertain future -- appears to be based on ideology given the lack of a detailed explanation from MacLeod.

“It’s cruel to rip that away from people with one month’s notice and clearly having no evidence, analysis or facts to back up the decision they made,” added Schreiner, the MPP for Guelph.

He said the basic income pilot had the potential to be a “small government, non-bureaucratic solution to eliminate poverty,” providing eligible recipients with money while saving on costly staff time for welfare case workers -- who MacLeod lamented spend the vast majority of their time on paperwork.

The minister’s words about improving incentives to get people off welfare ring hollow because the Conservatives are suspending rules allowing social assistance recipients to keep $400 monthly, up from $200, earned through part-time jobs, said interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.

“It’s all doublespeak. She’s trying to say one thing and doing absolutely the other,” he added, pleading with the new government to continue the basic income pilot project that thousands of people “took a chance” on.

“The government owes them the respect to continue the program, and more importantly to continue the program to get the information that Ontarians need to find a way to help lift people out of poverty, to create incentives.”

MacLeod said people on the pilot program 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.