Guaranteed Annual Income Links - Canadian Social Research Links

Basic Income at a Time of
Economic Upheaval: A Path to Justice and Stability?
Montreal, 15 - 16 April 2010
A two-day conference on whether an unconditional Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a feasible and desirable policy instrument to help us out of the current economic crisis. The conference includes keynote addresses from Dr. Louise Haagh (University of York), Prof. Guy Standing (University of Bath), and Senator Eduardo Suplicy (São Paulo, Brasil), and a roundtable discussion featuring Senators Art Eggleton and Hugh Segal, Amélie Châteauneuf (FCPASQ), Rob Rainer (Canada Without Poverty), Sheila Regehr (National Council of Welfare), Al Sheahen (USBIG), and more than a dozen papers from scholars and practitioners discussing the prospects and challenges of introducing a BIG in Canada and the US.
Everyone is welcome to attend.

NOTE: To submit a proposal, email a title and short abstract to:
bigmontreal2010@gmail.com
by Friday, January 15, 2010.

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Basic Income: An Instrument for Justice and Peace
The 13th BIEN Congress 2010
São Paulo, Brazil
June 30 - July 2, 2010, Universidade de São Paulo.
The 13th International Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network will explore the basic income option from the standpoint of its contribution to social justice and peace. This includes basic income as a means of reducing inequality and poverty, guaranteeing economic security in an increasingly insecure world and addressing citizenship rights directly.

Call for Papers:
Click the link above for more information on submissions.
The deadline for submission of papers
and panel proposals is February 25, 2010.

Source:
Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic throughout the world.

Livable Income For Everyone
Livable Income For Everyone (LIFE) is an organization started in British Columbia in 2003 to promote the implementation of universal guaranteed livable income in every country in the world.
- incl. links to: What - Why - How - News - Articles - Gallery - Tools - Letters - Links

On Basic Income: Interview with Götz Werner
German Millionaire is super advocate for basic income
Posted in die tageszeitung / translated 12/09
Götz Werner, founder of major drugstore chain (1700 stores), is one of the most influential advocates of basic income in Germany. Werner is not only a super advocate for guaranteed income, he is also one of the top 500 richest people in Germany.

Why the United States should implement Basic Income
By Sam Alexander
October 2009
Welfare, food stamps, and homeless shelters (...) explicitly stratify society into classes, enforcing the obsolete notion that the man who doesn't do labor is a less valuable member of society. This is why Basic Income should be absolutely universal- even Warren Buffett and Bill Gates must be given automatic "welfare", for only then can the dole rise above its condescending, humiliating nature.

Economic Foundations and Environmental Progress
By Alexander Bishop
November 2009
(...) The more efficient and technologically advanced the culture, the fewer people they need working. The economy rewards technological stagnation in labour-saving devices and designed obsolescence. The economy suffers when we are healthier, greener, and consume less. The solution is a movement away from job dependant monetary circulation to a guaranteed livable income. This will allow positive change to occur without causing job losses leaving people unable to meet their basic needs.

Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic throughout the world.
- incl. links to: * About BIEN * About Basic Income * NewsFlash * Congresses * Papers and Resources * Membership * Links * Contact

NewsFlash - the BIEN newsletter:

NewsFlash 59, December 2009 (PDF - 146K, 18 pages)
December 15, 2009
* Editorial: Call for Papers, BIEN Congress July 2010
* Events
* Glimpses of National Debates --- including Canada
* Publications
* New Links
* About BIEN
Source:
NewsFlash - newsletter (incl. archives)
BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers throughout the world.
Free subscription : send a request by email to bien@basicincome.org
[ earlier issues of this newsletter - back to 2006]

BIEN links to other relevant websites
- incl. links to National Affiliates and general GAI/Basic Income resources

Source:
BIEN - Basic Income Earth Network

Hugh Segal: A real fix for poverty
Canada’s welfare system is stuck in the Victorian era, wasting billions. It’s time to drop the old, failed approach
December 15, 2009
By Senator Hugh Segal
Any company, domestic or international, that invested $150-billion annually in a specific project and saw no change in the quality of results would initiate a serious review or serious staff changes at the top. And if it did not, investors, both individual and institutional and shareholders generally would justifiably complain. That is where the federal and provincial governments now find themselves on the challenge of poverty. StatsCan reports that Ottawa and the provinces have, since 2007, spent $150-billion annually on transfers in a range of income security programs unrelated to education and health care. This is serious taxpayer coin — funds that might better be used in tax cuts, defence, research and development and other productive investments for economic or national security in the future. (...) Governments have a rare opportunity to break out of the old path dependency on Victorian-age welfare programs and embrace a simpler, tax-based radical re-cast of how we address poverty.
Source:
National Post

Dauphin's great experiment: Mincome,
nearly forgotten child of the '70s, was a noble experiment
By Lindor Reynolds
November 28, 2009
DAUPHIN — Thirty-five years ago, this pretty town surrounded by farm land and far from big cities was the site of a revolutionary social experiment. For five years, Mincome ensured there would be no poverty in Dauphin. Wages were topped up and the working poor given a boost. The experiment, a collaboration between Ed Schreyer's provincial NDP and the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, would cost millions before the plug was pulled. The program saw one-third of Dauphin's poorest families get monthly cheques. In 1971, at a federal-provincial conference held in Victoria, Manitoba expressed interest in being the testing ground for a guaranteed income project. The Schreyer government applied for funding. In June, 1974, Mincome was approved...
Source:
Winnipeg Free Press

How to make real progress against poverty
The spread of food banks shows the dysfunction in Canadian income security programs
November 17, 2009
By Conservative Senator Hugh Segal
(...) A minimum income allowance for all would end poverty, expand human dignity and build Canadian society. And the savings in hospitals, prisons and police work, where the poor are wildly overrepresented, would produce real savings, less waste and a much more productive use of taxpayer money.
Source:
The Globe and Mail

More thoughts on
guaranteed income from Hugh Segal:

Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages)
June 2008

Guaranteed annual income:
why Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield were right (PDF - 172K, 6 pages)
April 2008

The View From Here:
How a Living Wage Can Reduce Poverty in Manitoba (PDF - 1.8MB, 38 pages)
November 2009
The living wage is calculated as the hourly rate at which a household can meet its basic needs, once government transfers have been added to the family’s income (such as the Universal Child Care Benefit) and deductions have been subtracted (such as income taxes and Employment Insurance premiums). (...) There is a paradox when, despite steady economic growth and consistently low unemployment rates, we have the second highest level of child poverty in the country and the third highest poverty rate. The living wage provides a way to address this paradox. It provides a means for ensuring that individuals and families with children can live with dignity and therefore fully participate in their communities and at work.
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

---

Possibilities and Prospects: The Debate Over a Guaranteed Income (PDF - 361K, 38 pages)
By Margot Young and
James P. Mulvale
October 30, 2009
The idea of a guaranteed income has a long and respectable history in Canadian political and economic thought. Recently, in the face of both wide criticism of the Canadian income security system and growing recognition of the unacceptability of current poverty rates, there has been a resurgence in calls for implementation of a Canadian guaranteed income. But the idea is a controversial one; progressive activists, academics, and politicians disagree about the desirability and the practicality of a guaranteed income. This report traces the history of guaranteed income proposals in Canada, reviews the arguments in favour and against, and suggests a number of other social welfare measures that should be central elements of any reform program, but that guaranteed income debates often ignore.
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Petition for a Canadian
Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) : Citizen's Income
Sign if you support:
- the GAI (Guaranteed Annual Income) - also known as CI (Citizen’s Income) - as a solution to persistent poverty in Canada.
- the full maintenance and improvement of the EI (Employment Insurance) and CPP (Canada Pension Plan) programs toward full universality.
- the elimination of means-tested welfare to be replaced by the GAI as a universal social right of Canadian citizenship.
- the belief that this is a requirement for Canada to meet the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) objectives in achieving income security, social inclusion and human dignity for all of its citizens.
I signed, because I support these views.
Gilles

October 11, 2009:

Photos from the Basic Income Earth Network Ottawa conference

Chandra's blog : BIEN Canada Ottawa conference a success!
October 5, 2009

Related links:

Income Security for All Canadians:
the Potential for a Guaranteed Income Framework for Canada
Workshop
October 1-2, 2009 (Ottawa)
"The purpose of this workshop is to share perspectives and build understandings about approaches to Guaranteed Income. BIEN Canada believes that such sharing will aid the continued growth and mobilization of a network of individuals and organizations in Canada committed to realizing an expanded basic/guaranteed income system for Canada, and thus to realizing income security for all Canadians. The workshop is designed to both inform and engage participants in discussion of a variety of approaches and models for achieving Guaranteed Income and universal income security. The target audience includes “first voice” persons (those with the lived experience of poverty), academics and researchers, social justice movements, community organizations, social and economic policy analysts, and government officials and politicians."

Program (PDF - 141K, 3 pages)
Updated to September 28, 2009

Background paper:

Income Security for All Canadians:
Understanding Guaranteed Income (PDF - 181K, 12 pages)
This paper provides an introduction to guaranteed or basic income, highlighting the policy debates and the history of the idea in Canada. Participants in the BIEN Canada Ottawa conference should read this paper to provide context for the detailed policy discussions and conversations of the conference.

Sponsored by
Basic Income Earth Network Canada (BIEN Canada)
Hosted by:
Citizens for Public Justice

New from Citizens for Public Justice:

Working Through the Work Disincentive (PDF - 396K, 26 pages)
April 8, 2009
Concerns about a possible work disincentive appear to be one of the biggest obstacles to guaranteed livable income. In this paper, presented at the USBIG Congress 2009, policy analyst Chandra Pasma examines the assumptions that underlie the belief in a work disincentive. Experimental evidence suggests that the work disincentive is not a significant concern, but it remains a political issue. Advocates therefore need to be able to frame arguments that counter these fears. Should we be paying people to “do nothing?”

More CPJ resources on
Guaranteed Livable Income - links to 10 reports (three of which appear below):

* A Deeper Look at GLI: But will they work?
By Chandra Pasma
October 27, 2008
- includes links to the roundtable on guaranteed annual income hosted by the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities, and the Basic Income International Congress in Ireland.

* Part II – A Deeper Look at GLI: Can We Pay People to Do Nothing?
By Chandra Pasma
January 5, 2009
- is it okay to let people live in poverty if they don’t work? Or, as the question is more commonly framed, is it right to pay people to do nothing?(...) Does everybody have a right to food, to shelter, to a basic minimum of security, and to clothing? International human rights commitments say yes.

* Part III – A Deeper Look at GLI: Jobs for Everyone?
By Chandra Pasma
February 24, 2009
It is simply not reasonable to assume that every Canadian who wants a job could have a job, let alone a good job that meets their needs and matches their skills and interests. We should therefore be wary of any attempts to allow access to income security be solely determined by participation in the paid labour force. GLI would be one way of ensuring that every Canadian has income security, even when there is no job available to them.

CPJ Blog
- this link takes you to the latest blog entry, where you'll also find links to earlier entries at the bottom of the page.
NOTE : I highly recommend this blog --- the extensive collection of entries is timely, and each entry contains at least a few links to related resources. In this blog, links to resources are bolded (as opposed to underlined and blue, as they are in more traditional websites, like the one you're on right now).

Source:
Citizens for Public Justice
We are a faithful response to God’s call for love, justice and stewardship. We envision a world in which individuals, communities, societal institutions and governments all contribute to and benefit from the common good. Our mission is to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy debates through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue.
[ Vision and Mission ]

Related links:

Dublin 2008 BIEN Congress papers and presentations
Theme: Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - The Basic Income Option
- links to over 60 Powerpoint presentations and papers presented at the Dublin BIEN Congress in late June 2008
- sample presentation titles and plenary themes:
[ NOTE: only the first few titles below are hyperlinked - click the link above to access links to all papers. ]

* Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages) - by Senator Hugh Segal, Canada
* Challenging Income (In)security: Women and Precarious Employment (Word file - 96K, 26 pages) - by Pat Evans (Carleton University, Ottawa)
* The Debate on Basic Income / Guaranteed Adequate Income in Canada: Perils and Possibilities (Powerpoint - 109K, 15 slides) - by James Mulvale (University of Regina, Canada)
* Basic Income-Greater Freedom of Choice Through Greater Economic Security of the Person in a Globalized Economy (Word file - 50K, 15 pages) - by William Clegg (National Anti-Poverty Organisation, Canada)
* What is an appropriate level of minimum income?
* The Case for a Universal State Pension: Lessons from New Zealand for Ireland's Green Paper on Pensions
* Basic Income in Ireland: surveying three decades
* Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - WHY Basic Income is a major part of the answer
* Pensions and Basic Income
* Global and Regional Issues
* Gender and Care I: Should Feminists Embrace Basic Income?
* An Institutional Perspective on Basic Income
* Social Justice and the Meaning of Life
* The Rise and Fall of a Basic Income Guarantee Bill in the U.S. Congress
* much, much more
[ Basic Income Ireland Conference website ]

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Transcript of the Senate Roundtable on Guaranteed Income (51 printed pages)
June 13, 2008
Highly recommended reading!
On 13 June 2008, the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities held a Roundtable on the topic of "Guaranteed Annual Income: Has Its Time Come?"
--- valuable insights on guaranteed income from recognized experts in the field of guaranteed annual income, including Derek Hum (father of Mincome Manitoba), Senator Hugh Segal, Sheila Regehr (Director, National Council of Welfare), Rob Rainer (Executive Director, National Anti-Poverty Organization), professors Lars Osberg and Jim Mulvale, Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Marie White (Council of Canadians with Disabilities) and many others.

The Citizen's Income Toronto (CIT) resources page
- includes links to online resources and to relevant books, along with a "Readings" section where you'll find essays by CIT site owner/administrator Terry Rourke of Toronto and to documents about CIT from a number of other sources.

Citizen's Income Toronto Newsletter <===click for the content of the latest issue.
- the content of this link changes each time the newsletter is updated with the latest news and views on citizen's income in Canada, along with links to the international CIT network
[ back issues of the newsletter ]

NOTE: Like the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, CIT is not a supporter of the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, as stated in the latest (April 13) CIT newsletter: "...the '25 in 5' thing is something thought up by social agencies who most impoverished people despise."

GAI and the 2008 federal election:

On September 17, the Green Party of Canada released its platform for the 2008 federal election.
For more detail, see the 2008 federal election page of this site:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics_2008_fed_election.htm#green

Related links:

From the Toronto Star:

Party battles 'tree-hugger' myth
September 13, 2008
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May isn't shy about touting her party's conservative credentials. For some, the party's name conjures images of left-wing tree huggers. But May emphasizes a picture of a socially progressive group with fiscally conservative ideas. Even members of the Conservative party's natural constituency, she believes, would feel at home with the Greens. (...)
Election pledge re. eliminating poverty
* Remove income taxes on those living below the poverty line.
* Increase Guaranteed Income Supplements to seniors by 25 per cent.
* As a first step to a guaranteed annual income, give an additional $5,000 a year to adults currently on welfare and strike deals with provinces so it doesn't get clawed back.

From the Green Party of Canada:

September 8,.2008
Green Party will eliminate poverty and promote local food
OTTAWA – Green Party leader Elizabeth May today highlighted both the need to eliminate poverty in Canada and promote local food on her first election campaign stop in Ottawa. (...) To eliminate poverty and hunger, the Green Party would look at introducing a Guaranteed Livable Income for Canadians. As a regular annual payment, negotiation with the provinces could allow Guaranteed Livable Income supplements to be set regionally. Setting the payment at a level adequate for subsistence will still encourage additional income generation."

Senate Convenes Roundtable on Guaranteed Income
On 13 June 2008, the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities held a Roundtable on the topic of "Guaranteed Annual Income: Has Its Time Come?"

Transcript of the proceedings of the roundtable (51 printed pages)
June 13, 2008
Highly recommended reading --- valuable insights on guaranteed income from recognized experts in the field of guaranteed annual income, including Derek Hum (father of Mincome Manitoba), Senator Hugh Segal, Sheila Regehr (Director, National Council of Welfare), Rob Rainer (Executive Director, National Anti-Poverty Organization), professors Lars Osberg and Jim Mulvale, Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Marie White (Council of Canadians with Disabilities) and many others.

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BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) Canada Founded

A group of 18 people from Canada met at the Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) that was held in Dublin, Ireland in late June 2008. (See the link to 60+ conference papers and presentations below.) After some discussion, a motion was made and supported unanimously to petition BIEN to recognize our group as their national affiliate for Canada. This recognition was in fact granted the next day at the BIEN General Assembly. (At this meeting, three other groups from Mexico, Italy, and Japan were also recognized as new national affiliates of BIEN.)

Basic (or guaranteed) income is a model of economic security that BIEN has discussed, researched, and promoted since its founding in 1986. This model calls for the granting by the state of an assured and adequate income for all, without any requirements for means testing or compulsory labour market attachment.

More information about Basic Income and BIEN can be found at http://www.basicincome.org

With the establishment and recognition of BIEN Canada, a Steering Group is now setting to work on such tasks as extending the membership of the network, putting our group on a firm organizational footing, and planning ongoing activities and future events.

Two well-known Canadian politicians concerned about poverty reduction were part of the initiative to establish BIEN Canada - Senator Hugh Segal and Member of Parliament Tony Martin. The National Anti-Poverty Organization also took part in the founding of BIEN Canada, as well as numerous researchers, social policy analysts, and advocates.

If you wish to be added to the BIEN Canada e-mail list, please contact:
jim.mulvale@uregina.ca (Jim Mulvale, Dept. of Justice Studies, University of Regina)

Related links:

Dublin BIEN Congress papers and presentations
Theme: Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - The Basic Income Option
- links to over 60 Powerpoint presentations and papers presented at the Dublin BIEN Congress in late June 2008
- sample presentation titles and plenary themes:
[ NOTE: only a few of the titles & themes below are hyperlinked - click the link above to access links to all papers. ]
* What is an appropriate level of minimum income?
* The Case for a Universal State Pension: Lessons from New Zealand for Ireland's Green Paper on Pensions
* Basic Income in Ireland: surveying three decades
* Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - WHY Basic Income is a major part of the answer
* Pensions and Basic Income
* Global and Regional Issues
* Gender and Care I: Should Feminists Embrace Basic Income?
* An Institutional Perspective on Basic Income I
* Social Justice and the Meaning of Life
* The Rise and Fall of a Basic Income Guarantee Bill in the U.S. Congress
* Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages) - by Senator Hugh Segal, Canada
* Challenging Income (In)security: Women and Precarious Employment (Word file - 96K, 26 pages) - by Pat Evans (Carleton University, Ottawa)
* The Debate on Basic Income / Guaranteed Adequate Income in Canada: Perils and Possibilities (Powerpoint - 109K, 15 slides) - by James Mulvale (University of Regina, Canada)
* Basic Income-Greater Freedom of Choice Through Greater Economic Security of the Person in a Globalized Economy (Word file - 50K, 15 pages) - by William Clegg (National Anti-Poverty Organisation, Canada)
* much, much more!

Weighing trade-offs on poverty
June 20, 2008
By Carol Goar
OTTAWA–The longing for a simple, affordable plan to reduce poverty runs deep. It has propelled the idea of a guaranteed annual income onto the national agenda no fewer than five times since the 1970s. But no proposal has ever had enough momentum to overcome the political and practical barriers that stand in the way of implementation.Senator Hugh Segal believes Canada is close to the breakthrough point. "Our current programs haven't made a jot of progress (in reducing poverty)," he says. "We've tried everything else. Why don't we try a basic income floor?" Segal, a Conservative, was addressing the Senate committee on cities chaired by Art Eggleton, a Liberal. Despite Ottawa's fiercely partisan climate, the Senate remains an oasis of civil and informed debate.
[ more columns by Carol Goar ]
Source
The Toronto Star

More from Hugh Segal:

Guaranteed annual income:
why Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield were right (PDF - 172K, 6 pages)
By Hugh Segal
April 2008
[Abstract] In this article, former IRPP president Hugh Segal considers the merits of a guaranteed annual income or a negative income tax, an idea whose time may never come, but which always generates a good debate. It?s a concept where thinkers on the left and right have found some common ground, from conservative economists such as Milton Friedman in the United States, to Red Tories such as Robert Stanfield in Canada. "If it is done right," Segal argues, "instituting a basic floor income could diminish federal-provincial and labour-management tensions" and could even, "over time, reduce the net burden of state spending while increasing aid to, and the privacy and dignity, of those who fall behind."

Beyond Freefall: Halting Rural Poverty
Final Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (PDF - 2.3MB, 408 pages)
June 2008 (report tabled June 16/08)
Contents:
Section I: Putting rural Canada back on the policy agenda
Section II: Re-invigorating rural economies to reduce poverty
Section III : Rethinking social policy:
*** Building a Poverty Reduction Strategy Around a Guaranteed Annual Income
***Making Work Pay and Helping Families
*** An Enhanced Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB)
*** Easing the Tax-Filing Burden
*** Food Banks – Tax Measures to Encourage Donations
*** Developing Better Measures of Rural Poverty
*** Education - rural housing - crime and justice - health care
Section IV: The healthy community approach

An income for all Canadians
A guaranteed income program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty
February 17, 2008
Comment by Reginald Stackhouse
Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been tried and found wanting but because they have been found challenging and not tried. One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history in this country – no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social programs. Just the opposite.They will be replaced by a basic income policy, a.k.a. guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. It will provide all Canadians with an annual income, regardless of what other income they enjoy, earned or unearned.
Source:
The Toronto Star

A Tory joins poverty debate
February 14, 2008
For decades, the notion of a guaranteed annual income has been raised in Canadian social policy debates. A basic floor income for all Canadian adults was first advanced in Canada 35 years ago by Senator David Croll, a progressive Liberal. It was touted again in the 1985 report of a royal commission headed by Donald Macdonald, another Liberal. More recently, the Green party has embraced the concept. It is refreshing, then, to see a Conservative, Senator Hugh Segal, urging the study of a guaranteed income as a replacement for the myriad social and anti-poverty programs in Canada.
Source:
The Toronto Star

Guarantee income for poor, Kingston senator urges; Segal filed motion to top up those below poverty line
Febrary 8, 2008
Canadian politicians have tried without success for close to 40 years to introduce a guaranteed annual income for poor people. Kingston Senator Hugh Segal is hoping he's the one who can finally make it happen. On Wednesday, Segal filed a motion in the Senate asking the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology to study the feasibility of using the tax system to provide a guaranteed annual income for individuals living below the poverty line.
Source:
The Kingston Whig-Standard

Guaranteed income, guaranteed dignity - March 5, 2007
Myriam Canas-Mendes loves her job as an outreach worker at the Stop Community Food Centre where she organizes public forums, connects recent immigrants to government services and helps out in the centre's breakfast and lunch programs. The pay is between $10 and $12 an hour depending on the task. That's considered fair by advocates who are pushing Queen's Park to raise the provincial minimum wage to $10 from $8.The problem is the single mom of two doesn't get enough hours to make ends meet. And so the 34-year-old Canas-Mendes has to rely on welfare to supplement her income. Except that doesn't provide enough money to live on either.
Source:
War on Poverty - from The Toronto Star
- ongoing series of articles and editorials about the plight of Canada's needy and possible reforms to the social programs that assist them.

Signs of Life in Canada’s
Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) Movement
December 14, 2006
Posted by Arun DuBois
It is the policy that dare not speak its name. For the better part of the last 20 years, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI), a government funded unconditional annual income floor below which no family or individual can fall, has been met with ridicule, dismissal, silence and, more often than not, legislation that does the exact opposite of what GAI activists want.
Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics
[A Blog of the Progressive Economics Forum]

Pondering a Guaranteed Annual Income
September 7, 2006
Posted by Marc Lee
Senator Hugh Segal reviews the history and the need for a Guaranteed Annual Income.
Canada’s on-again, off-again relationship with a guaranteed annual income (GAI) has made the rounds for many years. The most renowned recommendation for the GAI came out of the 1985 report of the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, chaired by Donald Macdonald, known as the Macdonald Commission. The report stated unequivocally that a universal income security program is “the essential building block” for social security programs in the 21st century.

Women’s Economic Justice Project:
An Examination of How Women Would Benefit from a
Guaranteed Livable Income (British Columbia)
April 2006 Revised June 2006
"The report documents discussions that formed a sort of grassroots women's think tank to examine the benefits, particularly to women, of a Guaranteed Livable Income. The project intended to look beyond current, and almost universally dominant, proposed solutions to poverty -- economic growth, jobs, daycare and welfare."

HTML version - table of contents with links to the individual sections of the report
PDF version (465K, 72 pages)

Source:
Women's Economic Justice Project
("In July 2005 the Women's Livable Income Working Group (c/o SWAG) began an 18 month project funded by Status of Women Canada to examine how women would benefit from a Guaranteed Livable Income.")
[ Status of Women Action Group ]

Income Insecurity:The Basic Income Alternative
by John Tomlinson
School of Humanities & Human Services
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
2001
"If freedom, security and productivity are the desired out comes of a modern welfare state then this book argues that a Basic Income is the most efficient way to achieve it."

Yes, Virginia, There is a Guaranteed Annual Income
December 2000
Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman
Caledon Institute
Abstract
Commentary(PDF file, 2 pages)

International Basic Income Links
(Guaranteed Annual income = Universal Income = Support Income = Citizens' Income )
(the links below are organized in reverse chronological order)

Minimum Income Standard (Britain)
- incl. links to:
* Detailed results 2008 * 2009 update * Work in progress * The team * Publications * Links * Join our mailing list * Contact us
A Minimum Income Standard for Britain is an ongoing programme of research to define what level of income is needed to allow a minimum acceptable standard of living in Britain today. Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, it is a collaboration between the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University and the Family Budget Unit at York University. It brings together two approaches to setting budget standards: the "consensual" negotiation of budgets by panels of ordinary people, and budgets based on research evidence and expert judgements. In MIS, members of the public negotiate budgets and experts check these decisions and advise where they think there is a case for amending them. The first results of MIS were posted in July 2008, and the results were updated in July 2009; links to both reports appear below.

A minimum income standard for Britain:
What people think (PDF - 236K, 64 pages)
July 2008
By Jonathan Bradshaw et al.
"(...) Poverty is currently being measured in three main ways, but none of these is producing a socially agreed minimum standard.
1. Relative income measures...
2. Measures of deprivation...
3. Budget standards..."

A minimum income standard
for Britain in 2009 (PDF - 427K, 24 pages)
July 2009
By Donald Hirsch, Abigail Davis and Noel Smith
Published on 1 July 2009, this report is the first annual update of the Minimum Income Standard for Britain (MIS), originally published in 2008. The standard is based on research into what members of the public, informed where relevant by expert knowledge, think should go into a budget in order to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living. The report considers two aspects of uprating the standard for 2009: changes in prices that influence the cost of a minimum ‘basket’ of goods and services, and changes in living standards that may influence what items should be included in that basket.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation
"We seek to understand the root causes of social problems,
to identify ways of overcoming them, and to show how social needs can be met in practice."

Basic Income Earth Network
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic throughout Europe.

US Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Network
"... promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States.
BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level income for everyone."

US BIG Links to BIG Websites (145+ links)
This page contains links to websites with information about BIG. The pages differ considerably in their point of view. Some promote a BIG, some promote it as part of a larger strategy; some promote variations on the idea; some oppose it altogether. The fact that these websites are listed here is not considered a recommendation of their program, simply a location to find information.

USBIG NEWSLETTER VOL. 10, NO. 51 Winter 2009
This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network (www.usbig.net), which promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level income for everyone.
Selected Content:
* The Eighth Congress of the USBIG Network: New York February 27-March 1
* The Effects of Alaska’s BIG on Growth and Equality in Alaska
* Alaska’s BIG Suffers from the Global Financial Crisis
*. The Income Security Institute
* New Issues of Basic Income Studies (journal)
* BIG News From Around the World (including CANADA)
* Recent and Upcoming Events
* Upcoming Events
* Recent Publications
* New Members / New Links
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IncomeSecurityForAll.org
- a portal of information about BIG and the host site for the Income Security Institute; the Institute is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to education and research into income security through a Basic Income Guarantee.
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On Welfare and the Alternatives (U.S.)
Welfare reform was a good idea in theory but hasn't quite worked out the way NEWT (Gingrich) and Bill Clinton thought it would.
March 1, 2007
"(...)if you want to decrease the size of government while making people self-sufficient and in doing so leaving the family unit intact, there is a rather simple solution that has been batted around since the Nixon administration. The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a government ensured guarantee that no one's income will fall below the level necessary to meet their most basic needs for any reason. As Bertrand Russell put it in 1918, "A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not, and that a larger income should be given to those who are willing to engage in some work which the community recognizes as useful. On this basis we may build further." Thus, with BIG no one is destitute but everyone has the positive incentive to work. BIG is an efficient, effective, and equitable solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom and leaves the beneficial aspects of a market economy in place. (...) I believe in dismantling the entire welfare system, Medicaid/care included and replacing it with the above BIG. This is the conservative solution without making judgments or convoluting it with man-managed bureaucracies as this would be the domain of the US Treasury department.
Source:
411mania.com ("pop-culture since '96")

What is the Basic Income Guarantee?
[For a discussion of BIG as a solution to poverty see "An Efficiency Argument for the Basic Income Guarantee"]
[For cost estimates of BIG See Garfinkel, Huang, and Naidich (2002) or Clark (2002)]
[For a History of USBIG 1999 to 2004, see The first five years of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network]
[For a discussion of the diversity of BIG proposals see, "The Many Faces of Universal Basic Income." (Reprinted by permission from the Political Quarterly 75 (3), 2004, pp. 266-274.0)]
Source:
U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network

Citizen's Income (U.K.)
"Citizen's Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship. The Citizen's Income Trust plays a vital role in building democracy, promoting pluralism, improving justice, addressing poverty and correcting and complementing the roles of the state and the economic market place."

A Basic Income for All
Philippe Van Parijs
"If you really care about freedom, give people an unconditional income."
Source:
Boston Review - "A Political and Literary Forum"
[This article was originally published in the October/ November 2000 issue of the Boston Review]

U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG)
USBIG aims to encourage discussion on the basic income guarantee in the United States and to serve as a link between supporters.

Universal Income Trust (New Zealand)
"Universal Income Trust is a non-profit, registered, educational charity. Its purpose is to inform people about the social, environmental, and economic benefits of universal income systems i.e. economic systems that fulfil the minimum basic requirements inherent in the International Bill of Human Rights."

Guaranteed Annual Income

Revenu annuel garanti