Yes, there have been multiple experiments at national or subnational levels that have tried a basic income approach of one kind or another for a time. It's difficult to just take examples from another jurisdiction and apply them directly to Canada. You have to look at what context we are putting it in. Many of these experiments have shown—similar to what we just talked about with CERB—that they do work.
We've shown that even in the Canadian experiments that have gone on in the past, like in Manitoba in the 1970s and even more recently in Ontario.... That program was unfortunately cut short prematurely, but even in that short time, we found that the direct impacts on improvements in the health of the individuals, their children and families were substantial. There was actually a decrease in utilization of health and social services by families as their lives were more stabilized.
It's also been shown that, overall, the proportion of people using those funds in very productive ways to obviously just stabilize their initial crisis then find ways to build back, do re-education and invest in their families.... It has been substantial and transformative for many of these families.
The research has been done. There isn't a need for another pilot project. It's been shown to work. What's needed is to now implement it in the context of our Canadian system.