Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today.
Changes in the global economy over the past 40 years, and most recently the financial shocks of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic, have undermined a lot of the institutions that Canadians rely on to keep the world a reasonably just place. Renewing the social contract is essential if we are to rebuild the mutual trust that creates resilient societies.
Employment insurance is one of those institutions. Transforming it to meet the realities of today's job market is an important task. I'm here to suggest that basic income is an essential partner to a renewed employment insurance program.
By basic income, I, along with most basic income advocates in Canada, mean a guaranteed livable income that is targeted to working-age recipients based on their other income—their current income. It's designed to streamline cash transfers from the various levels of government, but it does not replace essential public support services such as health care and supports for people with disabilities.
Basic income provides income support for people without work and it supplements the wages of low-income workers. Most importantly, it does not depend on hours worked in the previous year, so it can be accessed by people in non-standard employment.
The CERB—a response to the pandemic shutdowns—has given us a pretty good idea of who has not been well served by EI. We need to introduce permanent programs that serve the needs of workers who do not fit into the standard definition of work, such as family caregivers, workers in the cultural sectors and food production workers, including farmers. Non-standard jobs or gig work has become much more prevalent. Young and racialized workers are overrepresented in these sectors, as are newcomers and people with invisible disabilities who have difficulty finding accommodation in standard workplaces.
COVID-19 is likely to accelerate the changes we've already been seeing in the labour market that were well under way before the pandemic.
Employment insurance can work relatively well for workers—especially unionized workers in standard jobs—although it does need to be modernized. However, the more it's transformed to support workers in standard jobs, the less well it meets the needs of workers in the other forms of employment.
The health and social benefits of basic income are well established. The myth that basic income creates work disincentives has been debunked. There's a wealth of evidence that's been collected over the past two or three years about the sector-specific impact that basic income would have, and about how it might be designed, implemented and, especially, paid for in the current economic climate.
I'd like to suggest that if this committee is committed to a well-informed conversation about income supports, it's essential that you take this evidence into account in order to create permanent programs that can support all Canadians.
Thank you.