Mayor of Iqaluit says basic income would bring dignity to Nunavut
By Roderick Benns
The mayor of Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, says basic income policy would bring dignity and equity to Canada’s largest territory.
Mayor Mary Wilman (pictured left) says the multiple challenges of northern living on Baffin Island and in the rest of Nunavut are so great that citizens need basic income policy to lift them out of poverty.
“Due to a lack of roads and access, the only means of getting food here is through an annual shipping route and by air,” says Wilman. “That means we have to pay about three times as much for food as people pay in the south.”
Read moreOntario physicians rally behind basic income
On Tuesday August 18th a letter was delivered to the Hon. Eric Hoskins, Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, copy to Premier Kathleen Wynne and Deputy Premier Deb Matthews (who is also the Minister responsible for Ontario's poverty reduction strategy). Signed by 194 clinical or public health physicians practicing in Ontario, the letter asks the Minister for his "leadership in advancing consideration by the Ontario government for introducing a basic income guarantee (BIG) for the people of Ontario." Read the letter, share it widely and also read this blog, written by Philip Berger, MD and Lisa Simon, MD (two of the physician signatories) and published by our friends at Upstream.
Canada looks to PEI for leadership on basic income policy
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site
Perhaps now, in the middle of a federal election, it would be a good time to stop pretending that we are helpless to eliminate poverty. In a nation as wealthy and as privileged as Canada, poverty is simply a social construction. It is the result of decisions we continue to make (or not make) as a society — and it is costing us dearly. Inequality breeds poorer health outcomes. It drains our economy. It compromises our moral purpose as one of the world’s leading nations.
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Charlottetown mayor calls for basic income guarantee policy
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site
It’s time to improve the quality of life for all Canadians, says Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee – and the best way to do it is to implement a basic income guarantee policy. Lee says such a policy – also known as a guaranteed annual income or minimum income — must be created in tandem with other social supports to be effective.
“I support the concept of a basic income guarantee, but a national discussion is needed to address affordable housing, addictions and available treatments, poverty and, as part of that, the idea of a basic income guarantee,” he says.
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Ottawa man says basic income could make world of difference
By Roderick Benns
Publisher of Leaders and Legacies, a social purpose news site
From the time he was a toddler, John Dunn was bounced around 13 times from one Ontario foster home to the next until he turned 18. He was originally taken into care due to complications from his mother’s severe — and often suicidal — bi-polar disorder and alcoholism, and was separated from his three siblings in the process.
There was often abuse, and he knows the experiences left an imprint on the shape of his life.
“I think I began to develop a constant mourning…of friends, family, and pretty well anything I began to become familiar with,” Dunn, now 44, tells Leaders and Legacies.
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