Thank you very much for the invitation to appear today.
We bring a sense of urgency that we hope you share. It's undeniable that Canadians are experiencing a polycrisis. This doesn't mean simply that multiple crises are occurring at the same time. They are interacting with each other to produce an effect that's much more serious than the sum of its parts.
These crises include threats to the environment, higher poverty rates as pandemic benefits lapsed, income and asset inequality, food insecurity, decreases in the affordability of shelter and other basic needs items, precarious jobs, crime and violence, and worsening physical and mental health for many of us.
A common thread in this polycrisis is the role that income security plays in producing it and making things worse. Income is certainly not the only determinant, but it is a significant one. Inadequate coverage, poor coordination, insufficient benefits, and inefficiency and ineffectiveness in some of our income programs do not help.
A basic income approach—and this is one that underlies seniors' and children's benefits—has proven itself to be efficient and effective. It's a critical policy lever that government can employ more comprehensively to help solve the polycrisis and lessen its impacts.
Canadians are worried, uncertain and stressed. They don't experience our income support programs as an effective safeguard against the severe risks they face, nor do they find it a support for developing their capacity to help themselves and others. A basic income guarantee does both of those things. It decreases uncertainty and risk, and it increases capacity and options. This is good for individuals, for our communities and for the economy.
What is a basic income guarantee? Very quickly, it's a periodic cash payment with no behavioural conditions for work, education or anything else. It's affordable because it's a better use of resources than paying for a patchwork that's generating more problems than solutions. Conditions in our programs come with costs to bureaucracies, to people who are stigmatized and constrained, to communities facing problems they can't fix, and to governments that lose the trust of citizens.
A basic income guarantee is income tested. This is not a plan where billionaires get money too. It's so that people who need the most help get it when they need it. It's similar to universal health care in that regard. We really hope we're not going to need brain surgery, but we know that it's available to us when we need it.
It does not decrease work. I cannot stress this strongly enough. Decades of research and evidence show that it enables caring for young children, gaining education, searching for a better job and fostering entrepreneurship. It recognizes that some people actually are overworked. It provides the economic basis to start and gain from employment, including—and this happens rapidly—by improving physical and mental health.