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.
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.
Tom Cooper. Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction
Sheila Regehr. Basic Income Canada Network