Basic Income for Canadians: From the COVID-19 Emergency to Financial Security for All

Before the COVID‐19 pandemic, the idea of providing a basic income to everyone in Canada who needs it was already gaining broad support. Then, in response to a crisis that threatened to put millions out of work, the federal government implemented new measures which constituted Canada's largest ever experiment with a basic income for almost everyone.

In this new and revised edition, Evelyn L. Forget offers a clear‐eyed look at how these emergency measures could be transformed into a program that ensures an adequate basic income for every Canadian.

Forget details what we can learn from earlier basic income experiments in Canada and internationally. She weighs the options, investigates whether Canadians can afford a permanent basic income program and describes how it could best be implemented across the country.

This accessible book offers everything a reader needs to decide if a basic income program is the right follow-up to the short-term government response to COVID‐19.

EVELYN L. FORGET is Canada's leading authority on basic income. She began researching the subject in the 1970s and continues that work as an economist in the School of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Basic Income for Canadians was a nominee for the Donner Prize for excellence in public policy writing. This new edition analyses the results of the short-lived 2018-19 Ontario experiment on basic income, along with the measures implemented by the federal government in spring 2020 in response to the COVID-19 emergency. Professor Forget has been consulted by governments in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Finland, the Netherlands and Scotland on this topic. Her research has been featured on CBC Ideas, PBS Marketplace and in the documentary The Free Lunch Society. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.