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.
Part ONe: Canadian context for basic income
April 23, 2026 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Join the Hamilton Roundtable for poverty reduction alongside 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.
Part TWO: International polycrises and context for basic income
July 22, 2026 | 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET
Join the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction alongside international economists, authors, doctors and other specialists in basic income from across the globe. Guests to be announced in May.
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:
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Periodic: it is paid at regular intervals (for example, every month), not as a one-off grant.
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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.
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Individual: it is paid on an individual basis - and not, for instance, to households.
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Universal: it is paid to all.
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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 - Part ONE
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
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Sheila Regehr is a founding member of the Basic Income Canada Network, its chair since 2014 and co-author of Basic Income: Some Policy Options for Canada (2019). She is a former Executive Director of the National Council of Welfare, 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.
Dr. Kwame McKenzie. Wellesley Institute
Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of the Wellesley Institute, a full professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Director of Health Equity at CAMH, and a practicing psychiatrist. His work focuses on health equity, mental health, and public policy.
Kathleen Wynne. Munk School, Former ON Premier
Former Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne served as the province’s 25th premier from 2013 to 2018 and represented Don Valley West as an MPP from 2003 to 2022. She was Ontario’s first woman premier and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
Dr. Evelyn Forget. University of Manitoba
Dr. Evelyn Forget is a professor of economics and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba. She is widely known for her work on basic income, and the University of Manitoba notes that she is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Dr. Wayne Lewchuk. McMaster University
Dr. Wayne Lewchuk is a professor in McMaster University’s School of Labour Studies and Department of Economics. McMaster highlights his research on precarious employment, including the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario project.
Senator Kim Pate. Senate of Canada
Senator Kim Pate was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2016. The Senate describes her as a nationally recognized advocate who has spent decades working in and around Canada’s legal and penal systems, especially with marginalized and incarcerated people.
