Policy Options
The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) recently released a new analysis of a proposed national guaranteed basic income program for working-age Canadians, which found it is possible to halve previously projected costs while maintaining or even increasing its poverty-reduction impact.
The key is to base eligibility for the program on the economic family, instead of the typical nuclear family, to account for the net income of adult children and other relatives in the household.
The new PBO analysis, which updates its 2021 findings, includes projections for 2025 capturing changes in economic, poverty and demographic conditions.
It comes to the same conclusions as a 2023 report advocating a guaranteed basic income in P.E.I. That report was written by a working group of economists, public servants, politicians and advocates – including the authors – who spent two years studying the issue, including broader family definitions.
To read more, go here.