Universal Livable Basic Income in Times of Crisis and Beyond

Since then, vast numbers of Canadians have been laid off, others have shut their businesses — and many still risk going to work because they can’t afford to take the financial hit. The federal government is expecting four million Canadians to apply for emergency job loss benefits.

The government has rightly recognized that people need financial assistance during these difficult times. We are very supportive of the government’s legislation, passed last week, that’s meant to help. But Canada could be doing much more to provide financial support quickly and effectively in this time of crisis. And we already have the tools in place.

We should be implementing universal income — money that is sufficient to meet basic needs and provide stability, sent directly to Canadians below a certain income threshold.

The government’s new relief programs are application based and the volume threatens to overwhelm the government’s capacity to process them. New web-based portals to take applications are still being developed. This approach creates bureaucratic work, costs and most importantly delays.

We are already hearing concerns from those trying to apply for employment insurance and other government programs. Phone lines, for instance, are jammed: in one week 500,000 people applied for EI, compared to 27,000 during the same week last year.

To make things worse, the government’s capacity to process applications in a timely way is expected to decrease as the number of coronavirus cases grows. We cannot afford to wait in a crisis — we need to get support as quickly as possible to those who need it most.

Universal livable basic income could be distributed and taxed back where total incomes warrant, using the current tax system. This is one of the most simple and effective ways of distributing funds to those in need. We already see this working extremely well under the GST tax credit.