Municipalities call on province, Ottawa to consider basic income guarantee

CBC News

When he was an MP in Ottawa, Mike Savage was vice-chair of a committee that studied poverty. After travelling the country to meet with organizations and people with lived experience, one of the recommendations was for the government of the day to consider a basic income guarantee.

Years removed from his time in Ottawa and now occupying the mayor’s office in Halifax Regional Municipality, Savage finds himself in familiar territory: he’s one of several mayors and wardens in the province to recently write to Ottawa and the provincial government calling on them to pursue the idea.

“I just believe that, as a society, we’ve spent decades if not centuries managing poverty instead of trying to get rid of poverty,” he said in a recent interview.

“And this, to me, is the way to do it.”

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