WEBINAR | The Road to Basic Income Earth Network Congress 2026

April 23 & July 22, 2026

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EDT

Description

Join us for a series of critical conversations leading up to the 2026 Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress. Guests include former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, University of Manitoba economist and author Dr. Evelyn Forget,  Kwame Mackenzie from Wellesley Institute, Dr. Wayne Lewchuk and Senator Kim Pate, in addition to former basic income pilot participants.

About basic income

Basic Income is a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.

BI has the following FIVE characteristics:

• Periodic: it is paid at regular intervals (for example, every month), not as a one-off grant.

• Cash payment: It is paid in a medium of exchange, allowing the recipient to decide how to spend it. It is not, therefore, paid either in kind (such as food or services) or in vouchers dedicated to a specific use.

• Individual: it is paid on an individual basis - and not, for instance, to households.

• Universal: it is paid to all.

• Unconditional: it is paid without means test and without a requirement to work or to demonstrate willingness-to-work.

 A wide variety of Basic Income proposals are circulating today. They differ along many other dimensions, for instance, the amounts of the Basic Income, the source of funding, the nature and size of reductions in other transfers that might accompany it, and so on.

We are honoured to co-moderate with Basic Income Earth Network organizers and long-time changemakers from the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction and the Anglican Diocese of Niagara.

speakers

Tom Cooper. Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction

Since 2010, Tom Cooper has served as Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. Through the Roundtable's work, Tom has engaged governments at all levels to invest in poverty reduction initiatives and worked to give people experiencing poverty a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. He's advocated for social assistance rates that reflect the real costs of living, fought to end predatory lending in Ontario and helped co-found the Ontario Living Wage Network. Tom was involved in helping to establish Ontario's first basic income pilot: a critical research project testing whether providing a basic income could stabilize housing, improve health and enhance social inclusion opportunities for low-income residents.

Sheila Regehr. Basic Income Canada Network

Sheila Regehr is a founding member of the Basic Income Canada Network, its chair since 2014 and co-author, with Chandra Pasma, of Basic Income: Some Policy Options for Canada (2019). She is a former Executive Director of the National Council of Welfare, which published reports on solutions to poverty and inequality, the position from which she retired after a federal public service career that included front-line work, policy development, and federal/provincial/territorial relations. Her expertise includes income security, taxation, child benefits, and pensions. Much of her career focused on gender, race and the public policy implications of caregiving and other non-market work.

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