A BC expert panel chaired by a UBC faculty member recommended against the province moving toward a universal basic income system.
Over two years, and by commissioning over 40 research projects, the experts rejected the idea of launching a basic income pilot, determining that specific policy changes that they recommended would be more beneficial to BC than a basic income program.
The panel, established in 2018, was tasked with evaluating if and how British Columbia could implement a basic-income centred system. Dr. David Green, a professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at UBC, worked on the report “Covering All the Basics: Reforms for a More Just Society” alongside Dr. Jonathan Rhys Kesselman, a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University and Dr. Lindsay M. Tedds, an associate professor at University of Calgary.
“Moving to a system constructed around a basic income is not the most just policy change we can consider. The needs of people in this society are too diverse to be answered simply with a cheque from the government,” the report reads.
The experts found that an alternative approach would be more effective and would preserve some of the collective values that they think BC holds, rather than a turn toward individualism.
The report presents 65 recommendations on how to make BC more just and equitable.
The panel recommends targeted support for youth aging out of care, disabled people and women fleeing domestic violence, as well as extending basic services, a reformed Temporary Assistance program, an improved earnings supplement for low-income workers and new labour market regulations.
Green said in a press conference on January 28 that starting a basic income program would be much more complex than people might think and would require an overhaul of the tax and transfer system. He said that 14 per cent of Canadians do not file taxes annually, and 4 per cent are not known to the tax system at all — meaning the government would have to develop a system to “find those people.”
“It also interacts heavily with issues because [there are] a lot of people who are not in connection with the system or Indigenous. It runs right into issues about dealing with reconciliation … it becomes complex immediately,” Green said. “It means that you have to reinvent systems that are of the kind that are being criticized by basic income.”
The report estimates the annual cost for the proposals to be between $3.3 and $5 billion.
To implement the policies, Green recommended an incremental approach in a way that allows for assessment along the way.
“It also allows [for] going back to the people with lived experience, the people who are interacting with the system and finding out from them how it’s going,” he said. “In some ways it’s a bit messier, but we believe it’s a more just approach.”
Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Nicholas Simons thanked the panel for its work in a statement released on Thursday.
“We are now reviewing the recommendations closely as we build an economic recovery that supports all British Columbians,” he wrote.