Jagmeet Singh Calls On Liberals To Save Ontario's Curtailed Basic Income Pilot

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Priyadarshinee N
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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to pick up the tab on Ontario's recently cancelled basic income pilot project.

"Strong government leadership is required to address the challenges of our changing economic landscape. That's why I'd like to take this opportunity today to call on the federal government to step in and fund the remainder of the basic income pilot project," said Singh during a speech to the Council of Canadian Innovators in Ottawa on Tuesday.

"It's morally very reprehensible to have people sign up for a project for three years and to then be stripped of their project prematurely. People make plans, they make life decisions around knowing what's going to happen."

The project was launched under the previous provincial Liberal government in 2017 and was set to run for three years, providing payments to 4,000 low-income people in a handful of communities, including Hamilton, Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay, Ont.

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Its aim was to explore the effectiveness of providing a basic income to those living on low incomes, whether they are working or not.

Single participants received up to $16,989 a year, while couples received up to $24,027, less 50 per cent of any earned income.

The Tories had promised during the spring provincial election to preserve the $150 million pilot, but Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod later said the new government would reverse course because the program was failing.

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