Green party turns its focus to poverty fight

The Toronto Star

Conference to discuss guaranteed annual income and possibility of making idea part of platform
Susan Delacourt

OTTAWA–Now that all the major political parties seem to be latched on to the environment, the Green Party of Canada is turning its sights on the green stuff – or lack of it – in Canadians' wallets.

The Greens, holding a poverty conference this weekend, are considering a call for a guaranteed annual income in Canada – an idea that was pushed more than 20 years ago by the Macdonald royal commission on the economy, which also paved the way for Canada-U.S. free trade.

The guaranteed-income idea has been rattling around discussions of social-safety-net reform for many decades, but with the Greens and even some long-time Conservatives taking a new look at it, the concept could enjoy a resurgence in this highly political year.

In its simplest terms, it means a system in which all Canadians are entitled to a certain "floor" income. Some see it as an all-purpose, lump-sum replacement for all the other forms of subsidized social assistance – from child care to employment insurance.

Halton MP Garth Turner, ousted from the Conservatives, has recently posted a call for a guaranteed annual income on his website. "It's time," Turner wrote.

In an interview with the Toronto Star yesterday, Turner said this is an idea that blurs party boundaries, with left-wing advocates arguing for it on fairness and compassion grounds, while right-wing politicians such as Turner see it in terms of efficiency and individual rights.

Senator Hugh Segal, who has called himself a "lonely Conservative proponent" of the guaranteed annual income for nearly three decades, tried to revive the debate in the pages of the Star last fall.

"Surely the time has finally come to seriously consider a guaranteed income, financed by the money now in innumerable other programs. It is time to simply recognize that to be a Canadian should mean to be free of the fear that inadequate food, shelter, clothing, recreation and basic necessities of life cannot but impart," Segal wrote after a National Welfare Council report said that people were worse off now on state assistance than they were 20 years ago.

Now it's the Greens' turn. The Green Party is holding a major policy conference in Vancouver this weekend, titled: "A conversation on poverty and guaranteed income."

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is personally in favour of a guaranteed annual income. But it is not part of the Greens' platform – at least, not yet.

"A guaranteed annual income would eliminate poverty," May said, somewhat sweepingly, in a reply to an all-candidates' survey in last year's by-election in London, Ont.

University of Waterloo professor Richard Needham, in a paper he's prepared for presentation at the gathering, talks about a "universal basic income" or UBI. As he envisions it, every citizen would be given a base income, which would not be taxed – any income on top of it would be subject to taxes. The main motivation is democracy, Needham writes, since it is organized around citizens rather than the market or social outcomes.

"UBI is not a panacea but it is a necessary ingredient to restore a semblance of democracy."

The other political parties have approached guaranteed annual income more gingerly. Though Conservatives were in power when the idea was recommended in the 1985 royal commission report by Donald Macdonald, they took no steps to implement it.

When Liberals came to power in 1993, they carried out a social-policy review and issued a discussion paper that called guaranteed annual income impractical. It was floated again when then-prime minister Jean Chrétien declared his own war on poverty after the 2000 election, but nothing came of it.

The New Democrats, meanwhile, favour a guaranteed annual income in principle, but most of its focus in recent years has been on income for seniors.