JulieDzerowicz

Leah is a MP colleague and I have had the chance to chat with her on Bill C-273.

What we both have in common is a desire to better support Canadians; and that a new model is needed to support workers, to alleviate poverty and to provide Canadians the support they need in a world that is changing faster than ever before with disruptions like climate change and COVID, among others.

I put out a statement (on my website) saying I supported her Motion M-46.

The main objective of my bill is NOT to study if basic income is a good idea because there is strong and substantial existing information from literally hundreds of pilots that have been or are currently underway; but there is much less info on the best ways or models to implement and deliver basic income.

This bill is to enable IMPLEMENTATION pilots - in order to test basic income at scale ... so a whole province or territories is part of the pilot vs a small group. The issue of scale is the key barrier to moving forward on guaranteed basic income - we need to test larger populations for a longer period of time ... to get the model right and before we can implement nationally.

Thank you for this excellent question - it reflects what a lot of Canadians are worried about.

It is a top of mind issue for the PM, for the liberal govt and for me ... as many in Davenport are having issues finding an affordable place to live and/or to buy. The federal govt has invested over $40 billion for affordable housing and we have added an additional $1 billion for modular / rapid housing, invested in a lot more to create rental housing, and intro some measures to help first time owners buy a home. All of this is still not enough as is evidenced by your situation.

Last week the PM met with the Fed of Cdn Municipalities and indicated that he is making this is a TOP commitment to work with all levels of govt to better address this issue as some of the solutions / levers are are the provincial or municipal level.

We know this is top of mind for Canadians like you. We know that we have to do much more. I am also working on the issue of how to ensure artists / creators continue to be able to live/work in Toronto ... another huge issue in our riding

A lot of points here so I will focus on one in particular.

People who are under work instability (low wages, part-time work, gig-economy jobs) are susceptible to employer pressure.

The Stockton pilot in California showed that a support as SMALL as $500 a month was enough to give a bunch of people enough stability that they could find better jobs. And those on the pilot ended up working at the twice the rate of those who were not.

One specific Stockton story was someone who could not afford to go to an interview for a better paying job that she was fully qualified for because she could not afford to lose ONE day’s pay. The real cost of poverty is a lack of choice and resources - there is real power for employees when we support them even with the most basic of supports that delivers some stability.

Thank you for this question!

How to pay is a key question for any major program. We have figured it out in the past by doing trials or testing it at a provincial scale (this is how we figured out how to design and cost healthcare, pensions, etc.).

Bill C-273 is designed to allow moving forward on large-scale trials that will help us understand what the cost is and how to pay for it. It can also reveal savings from better health, lower crime and Canadians moving to better jobs. The bottom line is that we are already spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year while inequality grows, poverty continues and those most in need are too frequently missed. The real question needs to be--what will the cost be of not properly supporting all Canadians and of preparing our system for the world of change before us.