Canada’s current income assistance programs are not doing enough to support Canadians. If the goal of temporary assistance is to help those in need, these programs must have better, broader coverage.
With careful planning, a basic income system could be designed to be simple, adaptable, reliable and fair.
(Shutterstock)
Basic income should form part of a practical comprehensive plan for eliminating poverty in Canada.
A woman is pictured at the window of her west Toronto apartment in March 2020 as her landlord issued eviction notices at the start of the pandemic. Secure and affordable housing is a big concern of those collecting social assistance, whether it was CERB or provincial programs.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Lisa Marie Borrelli, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO) and Stefanie Kurt, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO)
The Covid-19 pandemic raises the question of the precariousness of foreigners dependent on social assistance in Switzerland - a precariousness that is still growing.
A woman holds a photo of her best friend, who died of a drug overdose in January 2017, before a march to draw attention to the opioid overdose epidemic, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, B.C.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
Catastrophic increases in opioid overdose deaths across Canada require a broad response – tackling housing, food and income insecurity as well as the contaminated drug supply.