The Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives offers a comprehensive vision for Canada’s federal budget, addressing social, economic, and environmental issues. Key aspects include:
Emphasis on social justice to reduce inequality and enhance quality of life.
Collaborative development with civil society organizations, researchers, and activists.
Specific policy proposals in areas like housing, healthcare, education, and climate change.
Fiscal responsibility through progressive taxation and resource reallocation.
The AFB challenges conventional budget approaches, presenting a more equitable and sustainable policy blueprint for Canada.
It can also help move the nation toward a basic income policy for all, according to Basic Income Canada Network’s Sid Frankel.
“The 2025 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) helps us evolve toward a basic income by recommending two kinds of changes: removing some conditionality in current programs and increasing adequacy’ explains Frankel.
Regarding the partial removal of conditionality, the AFB removes immigration status as a condition for receiving income support; as well as removing income tax filing as a condition by providing alternative direct cash transfers outside of the income tax system. Regarding the new Canada Disability Benefit the AFB proposes a broader definition of disability not as focused on medical certification in place of the proposed use of the Disability Tax Credit Certificate. Regarding working age adults who are not disabled, the AFB replaces the Canada Workers Benefit, which includes the condition of $3,000 of employment income, with the more generous Canada Livable Income Benefit, which contains no such condition.
“No income support program in Canada constitutes a full basic income with sufficient generosity to meet basic needs. However, the AFB increases the adequacy of these partial basic incomes’ highlights Frankel. This includes an $875 per month increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the basic income guarantee for low-income seniors. Regarding the Canada Child Benefit, it also includes an additional $8,500 annually for the first child in a census family earning less than $19,000, with scaled reductions for additional children, irrespective of age.
The Canada Livable Income benefit is much more generous than the Canada Workers Benefit, which it replaces. The maximum Canada Workers Benefit for individuals is $1,518compared to $9,000 for the Canada Liveable Income benefit. For couples the maximum Canada Workers Benefit is $$2,616 compared to $11,000 for the Canada Livable Income benefit
The AFB also recommends a maximum benefit of $9,000 rather than the planned $2,400 for the Canada Disability Benefit.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, sponsor of the AFB, should be congratulated for providing pragmatic affordable options to the federal government to improve income security programs by evolving them towards a basic income model. BICN was pleased to participate in their development.