A Basic Income Call To Action for Canadians.
By Micah Dewey
2020 has been an insane year, and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better any time soon. Through COVID-19, the murder of George Floyd, the collapse of the economy, millions of unemployed and a Canadian parliament that is worried more about the rare case of fraud regarding coronavirus benefits than it is ensuring that the citizens of this country don’t drown during this unprecedented time. We have seen how helpful these benefits have been for so many Canadians and fortunately, Parliament has made the benefits available for an extra two months. However, I think this year, we have seen how an economy can be dumped in days, how a pandemic can ruin an individual’s life even if they don’t get sick, and how necessary it is for Canada to be the first country to institute a nationwide unconditional Basic Income.
Parliament has shown some initiative on ensuring that people who have been directly effected by COVID-19 don’t immediately fall apart with the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit and the Canadian Emergency Student Benefit, CERB and CESB, but for some people this still doesn’t cover them. This is why today, I am calling on any Member of Parliament to make Universal Basic Income or Guaranteed Minimum Income a program that will be ongoing, regardless of whether we deal with the coronavirus pandemic properly or not. The Federal Government has determined that the average Canadian adult needs at least $2,000 a month to survive, so let’s run with those numbers for now.
According to Service Canada and the CRA, CERB has had 8.41 Million unique applicants, with a total of 15.44 Million total applications processed, adding up to $43.51 Billion in total benefits processed. It is fair to assume that these numbers would be significantly higher with a fully-fledged Basic Income but how much higher? Today, as it stands, I would expect between 50–60% of Canadians to apply for Basic Income or around 17 million people.
How expensive would it be, if we were to implement this? Roughly $408 Billion a year. Is that a shit-ton of money? Sure. Is it impossible for the Canadian Government to make up that difference? No, different studies related to numerous Basic Income Trials have estimated a 8% reduction in total healthcare costs. In 2019 the estimated healthcare expenditure from the Federal Government was $264 Billion. 8% of that gives us around 22 Billion.
Here is my estimated plan and how we could actually make this work
Top Line Cost $408 Billion Est.
Healthcare Savings $22 Billion Est.
GST Increase from 5–8% would raise an additional $25.7 B
Wealth Tax at 8% for people with a Net Worth over $10 Million would raise an additional $48 Billion
Benefit would be taxable and for approx 30% of recipients they would end up paying taxes on some of that income around an extra 5–8k per year. an additional $41 Billion
So now were looking at a somewhat realistic price tag. 271.3 Billion per year, matching or coming close to matching the federal health care budget.
Let’s get our lawmakers working for us. Let’s eliminate poverty in this country and narrow the income inequality that has run rampant. This is not about socialism or capitalism, this is about making sure that every human being has dignity.
