CBC News
Jessie Golem has spent much of the last six years sharing the stories of participants in Ontario’s basic income pilot program.
A former participant herself, the Hamilton photographer says the promise of three years of guaranteed income was life-changing.
She was one of 4,000 low-income earners who signed up for the pilot in 2017. At the time, she was working four jobs and hoping to start a full-time photography business. The pilot gave Golem the chance she needed, and she calculated that she could launch the business and be earning more than the $34,000 ceiling for the pilot before it ended.
She didn’t get that chance. The Ford government cancelled the pilot in 2018, within a year from its start under the previous Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne.
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