Guaranteed income up for discussion at region
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
The Region of Durham is the latest level of government to take a look at the idea of a basic guaranteed income.
The proposed program would see all residents receive a certain amount of money every year from the government – at which level is still uncertain. The theory about the idea is that it would allow people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it to use the money on things such as rent, healthcare costs and more.
Dr. Robert Kyle, the region’s health commissioner, presented a memorandum to the latest meeting of the health and social services committee, detailing the possibilities of such a program.
“I’m a health guy. I’m not a social services design expert with respect to social assistance. My thoughts would be one that poverty is an important determinant of health. What that means is that people who are poor share a disproportionate burden of illness,” Kyle tells The Oshawa Express of the report, which was originally received for endorsement from Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.
“The basic income guarantee is a potential solution to lift people in poverty up to a better standard of living, and the key behind a basic income guarantee is it’s not dependant on your participation in the labour force.”
According to the region’s Health Neighbourhoods report, which details various health factors in different areas across Durham, priority neighbourhoods – the areas with the most people facing issues of poverty – are hit with higher rates of illnesses such as asthma, hepatitis C and dental decay than the rest of the region.
“It’s a solution that’s worth study.”
In the latest provincial budget, the Ontario government has committed to launching a pilot project to study whether a basic guaranteed income would be worth doing in Ontario. If that is to go forward, Kyle says the province needs to look at a variety of factors to see if it’s worth the money.
“From a health perspective, what are some of the health outcomes, such as the utilization of healthcare services? You could look at the same thing with respect to education, say school performance. Look at criminal justice in terms of criminality,” Kyle says.
“In other words, poverty has an impact beyond health and as a pilot, you can look at the impact on those other sectors.”
When the matter was brought up at the committee level, councillors were split as to whether they supported it.
“I absolutely believe in this. Our health program in this country, the hell’s been kicked out of it the last few years by different levels of government for whatever reason. It would make for a healthier community, a healthier nation. This is doing exactly the same thing,” Councillor Joe Drumm of Whitby said during the committee meeting.
Drumm acknowledged that such an idea is controversial and there will be some against it, but that it would be worth it in the long run.
“We’ll get people that say, ‘oh, those bums won’t even work. Why should we pay them?’ We’re going to get that, and we’re going to get extremes on the other side of the coin saying if we help people, it will help us all a lot. I believe that this is one way of having a much healthier community and a much healthier nation,” he said.
“It’s going to cost us, and there are going to be a number (of people) who will abuse it. Everything is abused. We abuse everything. We abuse water like you wouldn’t believe. We do it every day, and we don’t even think about it. It will be abused, no question about that, but there will be a great majority who won’t abuse it.”
Not everyone was on board with the idea of a basic, guaranteed income, with one councillor citing such a program as unrealistic.
“Economics 101 will tell you when you pump money into an economy in that fashion, creating a revised poverty line and moving it up, it is extraordinarily inflationary,” said Councillor Derrick Gleed.
“And as a result, your price and cost of goods moves up accordingly. What you’re doing is moving the poverty line up, but not getting those people under the poverty line out of poverty. It’s a self-defeating process.”
Regional chair Roger Anderson agreed, adding the differences between the provinces and territories when it comes to their social services portfolios would make such a program tough to organize, and questioned what level of government would be footing the bill.
Kyle says if such a program were to be put in place, it would have to be the responsibility of higher levels of government – the feds and the province.
Councillors on the committee voted to send the matter back to staff for further discussion. Kyle tells The Oshawa Express that he expects the update report will be back for discussion at the next health and social services committee meeting, currently scheduled for April 28.