Basic Income Pilot Cancelled One Year Ago Today

"What I'm announcing today is about restoring dignity to Ontarians.”

That’s Minister Lisa MacLeod  (right) speaking on July 31, 2018 while axing Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot Project (BI).

On that day, mere minutes ahead of that edict, I had an inkling from reading social media posts what was coming.   

I’d picked it up on a live stream feed shortly after 2:00 p.m. In less than five minutes Basic Income was done.

BI was a three-year pilot intended to test this idea:  Can appropriate financial support programs be delivered efficiently while improving health, employment, and housing outcomes?

The concept of Basic Income goes back at least 500 hundred years. A basic income program ran in Dauphin Manitoba from 1974-79.  When the Ontario pilot was set up in 2017 it was one of the largest in the world.  It has been attracting international attention.

How could the government know that the Pilot was not doing what it is intended to do before any data had been collected, the Minister was asked? 

“Here’s the situation," said the Minister dodging the question.  “We have seen the program isn’t doing what it is supposed to do.” 

What about the recipients? 

We will end it “ethically,” the Minister boasted.

That’s the Minister’s story.  A narrative that fits her government’s agenda but is out of sync with the stories of BI recipients.

Hearing from participants we learn that BI gave them the opportunity to plan their lives.  Prior to the pilot project, poverty and the restrictive bureaucratic rules that came with it precluded having a life plan. 

Participants are fighting back by putting their stories out there.

Jesse Golem is leading the way.  She is a photographer, a writer and a Basic Income recipient. When the program was cancelled, she “needed to do something” so she created a photo series called Humans of Basic Income (@HumansBasic) as a way to tell the stories of those who had been participating in the project. 

Some snapshots from the photos:

I can finally buy Christmas Presents for my Children

It has given me a Chance to Recover My Future

Now I have the Dignity to go back to School

Helps me Stay Healthy

I Felt Human Again

I’m a late convert to BI. I’d always thought that we should live in a society where everyone has decent housing; where people are able to earn an adequate income and, if for whatever reason, they aren’t able to provide for themselves, there will be a safety net that takes care of them. 

But I was naive. Others have been too. Why do we trust these in-the-dark politicians who can’t countenance pilot projects, especially other people’s pilot projects?  So, when the government changed…well, we should have seen it coming.  That is what happened with Mincome in Manitoba nearly forty years ago.

We’ve got no data but the stories tell us that such programs have value; changing lives in ways that decision makers can’t or won’t understand.

Let’s keep getting their stories out there.

Cuts to Ontario Legal Aid Clinics - By the Numbers*

23                            

The percentage increase in certificates issued by LAO  from 2013-14 to 2017-18.           (Auditor General’s 2018 Report, p. 259 and 260.)

12                  

The percentage increase in active community legal clinic  files from 2012-13 to 2016-17 (Auditor General’s 2018 Report p.260)

$495,000,000          

LAO’s revenues in 2018-19 (source: Legal Aid Ontario)                                

$371,000,000           

Amount of LAO funding that comes from the provincial government based on the Auditor General’s 2018 report stating that 75% of 2017-18 funding came from the  province. [Auditor General’s 2018 Report p. 258]

$133,000,000           

Amount to be cut in current year a 36% reduction based on $371M of provincial funding. (Ontario Budget)

$164,000.000          

Amount to be cut by 2021-22, a 44% reduction. (Ontario Budget)

$2,088,000,000

Ministry of Attorney General Budget in 2018-19 (Ontario Budget,  p284)

$1,934,000,000       

Ministry of Attorney General budget for 2019-20 a 7% reduction. Ontario Budget, p284)

86                                

Percentage of Cuts coming from Legal Aid Ontario as a percentage of cuts to the Ministry of the Attorney General - a reduction of $154M this year and $133M of that is coming from cuts to Legal Aid.

$17,731                     

Maximum Income to qualify for Legal Aid Services in Ontario for a single person. The corresponding figure for a family of three is $37,194. (Legal Aid Ontario Website)

*Adapted from https://stoplegalaidcuts.nationbuilder.com/ This website was created by  www.itrapidsupport.com for North Peel and Dufferin  Community Legal Services.

 

You can Fight those Predatory Lenders at City Hall

In 2017, new provincial legislation in Ontario gave municipalities more power to regulate predatory loan businesses.  The new rules allowed local governments to take leadership where senior levels of government have faltered.  Here is what one municipality did.

Hamilton Steps Up

The City of Hamilton had a population of 536,917 in 2016. Hamilton bills itself as “the best place to raise a child and age successfully.”  Community advocates have long been concerned about the economic violence inflicted by predatory lenders on individuals, families and the community as a whole. 

Tom Cooper, Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, was one such advocate. 

Tom Cooper 

“Profiteering is a derogatory term applied to those in business who make profits through methods that, while not illegal, could certainly be considered unethical,” says Cooper.  “Payday lenders sure seem to fit the description of profiteers.”

  

In 2015 Cooper decided to try to shine a bright light on the industry in Hamilton.

Cooper began to work with city council and particularly Councillor Matthew Green whose downtown Ward was home to many payday loan businesses.  In fact, Green calls the targeting of inner city neighbourhoods by the payday loan industry “pernicious.” 

“We had more payday loaners in some kilometres than Tim Hortons,” Green told local media in 2015.  Estimates of the numbers operating in Hamilton were as high as 35.  

Cooper and Green worked together to bring in the province’s first municipal licensing of payday loan outlets in Hamilton. That meant these lenders were required to provide city sanctioned information on credit counselling to anybody coming in their doors.  The new licensing required lenders to display large posters that contrasted the actual interest rates of a payday loans with the interest rates of chartered bank loans. They also had to pay a licensing fee. 

But more was needed. Cooper and Green strategized. Then, early in 2018, Green brought forward a motion to restrict these businesses to 15 in total (one per ward) but grandfathered existing locations.  He received strong support from council colleagues.

The by-law was amended.

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8044206-new-bylaw-to-cap-payday-lenders-at-15-in-hamilton/

Here is what it said. 

The Hamilton By-law in a Nutshell

Licensing

• Every payday loan business shall hold the applicable current and valid licence. Before a licence is issued, every applicant shall submit: 

(a) a current and valid licence as a lender or loan broker under the Payday Loans Act. 

(b) accurate, scale representations of the posters that will be displayed.  

(c) the credit counselling information that will be given. 

• No new payday loan business shall be issued a licence for a location where payday loan businesses were located when the by-law was passed. 

• No more than15 payday loan business licenses shall be issued and no more than one payday loan business licence shall be issued per ward.

Rates Poster

Every payday loan business shall display a poster at each office, approved in advance by the Issuer of Licences. The poster shall be in English and visible to any person immediately upon entering the office.

The poster must be a minimum size of 61 centimetres in width by 91 centimeters in length; and must lay out the amount of the payday loan business’s annual interest rate and rates of chartered banks. 

Credit Counselling Poster and Information

A Credit Counselling Poster must be displayed that lists specific contacts with their respective telephone number and email addresses.

Every business shall ensure that each person who attends at its offices is given, immediately upon him or her expressing an interest in a loan, approved credit counselling information.

Here is the bylaw in full https://d3fpllf1m7bbt3.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/media/browser/2018-03-02/18-042-as-amended.pdf

What You Can Do?

• Consider contacting a member of your local city or town council. Ask them to initiate a similar bylaw in your town.  

• Advocate for alternatives.  For example, the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic has called for a return to postal banking where basic financial services, like credit, could be available without exorbitant fees charged by payday loan companies at the Post Office.

Found in the Sherbrooke Fusilier War Diaries *

(This piece originally adapted from the Sherbrooke Fusilier War Diaries originally appeared in The Dream The Glory and the Strife edited by Raymond Fenech - 2018 Hidden Brook Press.) 

                

June 4-6 1944                                              

                                                                                     

High winds and low clouds stall D-Day 24 hours.          

In spite of the wind the flotilla sails southward                        

all night via charted channel waters. Men ruminate     

over what awaits on shore then land is sighted             

at 1000 hrs off Berniere-Sur-Mere. Craft start                        

the run in to the beach, men quite calm                        

sitting on top of their vehicles watch the shore.   

The Regiment lands, moves forward, no casualties                  

but next day German tanks make a first appearance,  

force the CDN infantry to retire with 63 killed,              

wounded or missing. Later, ready to move on                

a half hour notice, the sun sets amidst black                          

banks of clouds leaving a dirty red smudgy sky             

with the boom of distant gunfire broken                        

by the sharper rattle of nearby machine guns.

Everything seems ominous. Everyone is on alert.          

                                                                                   

July 18, 1944                                         

      

                                                                                     

The shadow of death passes over Headquarters. 

In minutes, 21 cm mortars take thirty-one lives. Heavier casualties than a normal day’s fighting.            

                                                                                                              

August 25, 1944                                           

                                                                                     

An extensive map issue arrives showing vast

distances and fabulous advances imagined by HQ.

Startling indeed, as those left from D-Day recall

the slow, difficult struggle for CAEN and the

devastating exploitation and FALAISE assault.

Two days later considerable friction develops                 

among all command levels. Little is accomplished         

due to the lack of appreciation by the Infantry              

of issues arising using armour in country where

dense woods greatly limit the traversing of guns.

                                                                                     

 September 1944 – May 1945                                                                                                                                                                     

A few men who were through the thickest fighting                  

are a little jittery yet but doing well and should            

soon be over it as the Regiment fights on in NWE. 

*Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, including 14,000 Canadians at Juno Beach. My father was one of the men who landed that day.

The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors and the RCAF contributed 15 fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons to the assault. Total Allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000, including 1,074 Canadians, of whom 359 were killed. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties, including more than 18,700 Canadians. Over 5,000 Canadian soldiers died. (From the Canadian Encyclopedia.)

City Council Matters #2

The Ontario government is moving ahead with a review of regional government.

They’ve appointed Michael Fenn and Ken Seiling as Special Advisors for the review.

Michael Fenn, experienced
and respected bureaucrat

The review will examine Ontario's eight regional municipalities (Halton, York, Durham, Waterloo, Niagara, Peel, Muskoka District, and Oxford County), the County of Simcoe, and their lower-tier municipalities.*

We’ve been told that the advisors will work with the Ontario Government for the People to figure out how to make it easier to access municipal services. They will identify processes to deliver efficient and effective services, ways to cut red tape and, of course, ensure municipalities are open for business. 

A Useful Resource

A paper entitled The Potential and Consequences of Municipal Electoral Reform, published in 2017, would be a useful resource.

The paper was written by Aaron Moore, an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Winnipeg and  an Adjunct Professor in the Department of City Planning at the University of Manitoba.

Aaron, Moore

Moore puts forward five categories that capture many of the key factors to look at when considering the effectiveness of municipal electoral systems.  They are local democracy, representation, engagement, intelligibility and accountability.  Some elaboration follows:

1. The ideal of local democracy should mean the public has easy access to their elected officials.

2. Representation suggests  that equal or adequate representation of societal groups that have traditionally gone unrepresented is attempted.

3. As elections are the primary means citizens have to indicate their support for or opposition to government and government policies, a system that strives for greater engagement of the electorate is preferred.

4. An electoral system should allow voters to easily find information on candidates and to navigate the system.  Moore uses the term intelligibility to describe this goal.

5. Voters should also be able to use the electoral system to hold elected officials accountable for decisions.  Correctly connecting elected officials to policy decisions addresses the goal of accountability.

Using that framework, Moore then looks at four variants of municipal electoral systems that can be part of reform efforts.

Council size, ward  versus at large elections, the electoral formula ( First-Past-the-Post vs. Ranked Ballots) and political parties aren’t the only potential changes that could be made to local councils, of course.  They may be the most commonly talked about though.

There is a fair bit more research that Moore has looked at can be helpful than I would have imagined.

For example, the idea of ranked ballots is a change that is long overdue in my view.  San Francisco has had a ranked ballot system since 2004.  But research studies have shown it is confusing and causes voters to over vote (voting and ranking more candidates than allowed) thus spoiling their ballot.

In his conclusion, Moore states that “any argument for reform must clearly state such reasons and keep them at the forefront of the ensuing debate…”

That is good advice that it is hoped the Ontario government takes into account.

Moore’s paper can be found at https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/78793/1/IMFG_perspectives_20_electoral_reform_AaronMoore_Oct_17_2017.pdf

------------------

*A quick look at Regional governments shows that the results of this review could impact 73 local councils who are part of two-tier or county systems that have been identified for the review and more than 5 million local voters.

CITY HALL MATTERS - City Managers (CAO’s)

Finding a New CAO/City Manager can be a challenge for municipalities.

Take Hamilton, for example.  Their previous City Manager, Chris Murray, left for a similar position in Toronto last summer.

In August, Council put a process in place by determining who’d be on the Steering Committee for hiring a new manager but didn’t do much else, it would seem.

Council’s composition changed significantly with seven new members elected in the fall.  But the process set in place didn’t make room for new Councillor’s involvement in the very important decision of hiring a manager.  Council’s questionable decision to move a Hiring Committee meeting to another City has raised public concerns.  It is a bit of mess and one wonders how it will all impact the work of Council over the next four years.

(An article by Cameron Kroetsch provides some historical context and analysis
https://raisethehammer.org/article/3613/whats_at_stake_in_the_city_manager_hiring_process)

Another Fine Mess

The Southwestern Ontario City of Sarnia has a mess of a different sort.

It has to do in part with building a wall.  No, not that wall. This wall is a real one and separates the mayor’s office from the administrative staff.

A 2016 report concluded that long serving Mayor Mike Bradley had created a toxic work environment by engaging in "egregious bullying and harassment" when dealing with senior city staff.

Mayor Bradley

Council acted on the report by putting sanctions in place against the Mayor.
They docked his pay, restricted his access to City Hall to work hours only and permitted him to only speak with staff through an intermediary.

Perhaps surprisingly, (voter is always right) Bradley won re-election by a large margin in October.  Many incumbent Councillors were defeated or retired.

Now the City Manager has left and a new one is needed.

Earlier this week, Sarnia Councillors voted to keep in place the sanctions on the Mayor.  An issue was whether the sanctions (on or off) will hurt the search for a new manager.

Council also voted to get an outside legal opinion on keeping the sanctions on.  That will take time and cost money.
https://www.theobserver.ca/news/local-news/sanctions-to-stay-for-now

In the Soo

Meanwhile Sault Ste. Marie Council is also looking for a new top staff person.

Mayor Christian Provenzano recommended that a Selection Committee made up of himself, an experienced and a new Councillor be approved.  Those other two members would be gender balanced.
https://www.saultstar.com/news/local-news/cao-and-city-to-part-ways-at-end-of-contract

Council, then, in an open meeting voted for three members to be part of a Selection Committee.

Sault Ste. Marie - City Hall

Mayor Provenzano also put forward the idea that money would be saved by not hiring a consultant.

It that doesn’t work they’ll start the process over again.

“But obviously if that comes to pass, we'll be back here (to Council) and we'll be talking about that," the Mayor told the Soo Today. https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/mayor-hilsinger-niro-lead-search-for-the-next-horsman-1238890

They have some time as the current City Manager doesn’t finish his four year contract until August.

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out for these three cities.

Some Reading

Michael Szarka researched the whole idea of the problem of recruiting CAO’s for small municipalities in Ontario. It is an interesting read.  https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1173&context=lgp-mrps

More from Doug Ford

William Lyon Mackenzie was a rebel, a writer and publisher and Toronto’s first mayor.

As a “provincial” politician he was expelled from the legislature five times - not just for the day but for good - until the voters sent him back.

Mackenzie was a nasty man, at least when it came to calling political opponents names.

And yet it was Mackenzie's strong belief that information should be available to the people.  He put considerable effort into this by publishing written documents and transcripts of debates in the Colonial Advocate and at public gatherings so that people could discuss and form their own opinions on issues.

I wonder what he would have made of today’s eight second sound bites and twitter politics.

This thought ran through my head as I mused about the current provincial election in Ontario.  Like Mackenzie, Conservative Leader Doug Ford is railing against the elites although arguably not the same elites who Mackenzie attacked in 1837.  Perhaps if Mackenzie was still around he would adapt to the modern person’s idea of communicating by twitter.  We thought we would try out this idea by putting out Doug Ford’s ideas in limerick form so they could fit into tweets.

Here they are with sources and but a few words of introduction.

----------

Doug Ford’s favourite book is How to Win Friends and Influence People.

                                           Dale Carnegie

               Just read How to Win Friends and Influence People
               It is a book that has certainly no equal
               I’ve read it from back to front
               and folks just let me be blunt
              Genuine sincerity is the key to it all.

(Source John Filion -The Only Average Guy, p 33)

-----------

Ford engaged in a public debate with famous author Margaret Atwood when, as a City of Toronto Councillor, he was pushing to close libraries.

         

                                Power Politics

              I wouldn’t have the slightest clue
              If she walked by me, would you?
              well good luck to @MargaretAtwood
              I don’t know her, think I should?
              I fight 4 the people, what’s she do?
           
(Source: John Filion -The Only Average Guy, p 177)

----------

Doug Ford talks about the political platform of Ford  Nation.


        Subways, Subways, Subways

Folks we just represent the people & that’s it
We’re as grassroots as they come & you’ll have 2 admit
#FordNation stands up 2 the political elite
Gives quality service, finds ways 2 unseat
Unreachable leaders & build underground transit.

(Source:  Ford Nation p 7, 271)

----------

Some have compared Ford  to American President Donald Trump.

                     We Were First

         Lots of signs and big rallies for our base
         Trump did it too but just in case
         You thought it was his idea
         Cause you read the lefty media
         We put that winning formula in place

(Source:  Doug Ford - Ford Nation: Two Brothers: One Vision p 110)

                                                       ----------
Like many populists Doug Ford differentiates himself from regular politicians.

                   The Average Politician

          He is blowing the smoke where the sun don’t shine
          The average politician does it all the time.
          In front of the people
          They are always agreeable
          People aren’t stupid they see this fake line.

        (Source:  City News October 13, 2016)