Class-action lawsuit launched against Ontario government over cancellation of basic income pilot

Thestar.com
August 27, 2018
Mary Riley

Four Lindsay residents have launched a proposed class-action lawsuit for breach of contract against the province in the wake of the Progressive Conservative government’s cancellation of the basic income pilot project.

Dana Bowman and Tracey Mechefske said at an event to launch the suit Monday that they had made plans to improve their lives when they signed up for the pilot in April 2017, providing the government with detailed personal information to be approved and expecting the pilot to run its three-year term.

Dozens of protesters joined a rally at Victoria Park in Lindsay earlier this month to decry the provincial government’s decision to prematurely end the basic income pilot project.

Mike Perry, a social advocate for the program who is also a lawyer, is representing the plaintiffs in the action, which he filed in court Monday morning. He is handling the case pro bono. The two other plaintiffs are Susan Lindsay and Grace Marie Doyle Hillion.

Roderick Benns, publisher of the social advocacy magazine The Lindsay Advocate, organized the event, saying the pilot program “was a chance to change the channel on how we look at poverty.”

Under the program launched by the Liberals to run in the test communities of Lindsay, Thunder Bay and Hamilton-Brant, more than 4,000 people were given a basic income of up to $17,000 a year. Couples received up to $24,000.

About 2,000 people in Lindsay enrolled. Those on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) or Ontario Works were transferred to the program’s payments.

Benns noted he had heard from many people after Premier Doug Ford’s government cancelled the program on July 31, saying many had found better living quarters, were able to pay bills and had a chance at a better life.

Labour Minister Laurie Scott, the MPP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, has said Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod announced the cancellation because the new government had “too many concerns about the program” and that the government plans to do more to integrate recipients back into the workforce.

MacLeod also noted at the time that the previous Liberal government spent money it didn’t have on “handouts that actually do little if anything to break the cycle of poverty.”

Perry said the court filings included the lawsuit for breach of contract and damages, and an application to the court requesting a judicial review of the government’s decision. The suit “isn’t about damages,” he said.

“We take no joy in this,” he said. “It is not fun to sue the government. ... This will be a David versus Goliath (fight).”

He called the plaintiffs “brave Davids,” and said if the court certifies the case as a class action, other plaintiffs in the remaining test communities would be invited to join the suit.

Perry said people who signed up for the program had a contract with the government; they had completed surveys and provided significant details about their personal lives as part of the program’s data research. They also made plans after receiving the payments, working toward improving their lives.

The lawsuit claims that the basic income program is a legal contract between the government and the participants, and it was breached by the cancellation, Perry added.

Dana Bowman, one of the plaintiffs, said while medical issues put her on ODSP, she “felt like a criminal in my own community.” Government cuts to other programs that helped her made life even more difficult.

But it was basic income that “gave me back my dignity. ... I didn’t have to use food banks anymore,” she said. “Now I’m going to have to go back to shopping in the ‘day-olds.’”.

Tracey Mechefske said she, too, was on ODSP for health issues, and her husband “works terribly hard and we still can’t make ends meet. He can’t take any vacation because we can’t afford it.”

Basic income allowed her to start a small business making all-natural products, and she invested money in shows for the next several months to get the word out.

“I had a three-year plan. Now I won’t be able to afford the ingredients to make my products, and all the money invested in the shows is gone.”

Mechefske said ODSP payments are not enough to meet the cost of living. But it was meeting the criteria for basic income and then seeing the program cancelled that pushed her toward the lawsuit.

“It was not a handout. ... I had to open my life to the government -- tell them what I was eating, what I was wearing, what I was buying ...”

Perry said politicians “can’t just make decisions off the top of their heads ... there needs to be backup research and data.”

The plaintiffs, he said, want the program reinstated and are willing to withdraw the lawsuit if the government reverses its decision.