City of Kitchener looking for public input on basic income pilot

A public consultation is being held at the Kitchener Rotunda tonight to discuss the idea of a basic income.

It would aim to give those living in poverty a guaranteed monthly wage.

Other countries like Finland and the Netherlands are looking into these kinds of pilot projects as well, with several possibly coming to Ontario in the near future.

Linda Terry, Executive Director of the Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries says the plan would up the amount that those roughly 9,000 people in the region on Ontario Works receive monthly.

“I’m not sure what the exact amount is but it would be over $1300 a month, where as someone on OW right now receives about $700 a month, so it’s a significant increase.”

She adds that this is a great idea as long as that money increase doesn’t come out of other support like subsidized housing and childcare.

This would raise annual support from $8,500 to roughly $15,000 for these individuals which is a vast improvement but still below the low income measure of $20,000, but it would make affording basic necessities easier.

“As you can imagine, at $706 a month for a single person, that really doesn’t go very far to providing housing and food and anything else that you might need.”

The meeting will take place tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Kitchener Rotunda with MPP Daiene Vernile, MPP Kathryn McGarry and the Ministers of Housing and Poverty Reduction Strategy.

They are looking to hear answers from the public to the questions of who should be eligible for basic income, how much should it be and where should this pilot project take place.

Terry says Ontario is looking to have three of these projects set up throughout the province.

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