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Basic income recipients in Thunder Bay, Ont., 'devastated' by pilot project cancellation

Recipients of the basic income supplement in Thunder Bay, Ont., say they're devastated and scared after learning that Ontario plans to phase out the pilot project. The province says the decision is part of an overhaul of the social safety net, details of which will be announced within 100 days.

'I felt like a human being' says Sue Paskoski of pilot project which was supposed to run two more years

Heather Kitching · CBC News ·
Ontario is cancelling a pilot on Basic Income in the spring. (Matt Prokopchuk/CBC)

Recipients of the basic income supplement in Thunder Bay, Ont., say they're devastated and scared after learning that Ontario plans to phase out the pilot project.

The province announced Tuesday it will end the pilot as part of an overhaul of the social safety net, details of which it says it will announce within 100 days. 

Several recipients, who had gathered at the Waverley Resource Library in Thunder Bay Wednesday morning for an event planned prior to the government's announcement, cried as they expressed confusion and anger over the move.

"For the first time in a long time of being an ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) recipient, I actually felt like I could breathe, I felt like a human being," recipient Sue Paskoski said of the program as she choked back tears.

"The arrogance in that announcement was horrific," she continued. "It spoke volumes to me about how much this new government doesn't care, how many lies they've told already."

Thunder Bay, along with Hamilton and Lindsay, were chosen as part of a pilot project aimed at  giving more money to low-income people and researching the outcomes. 

Lisa Macleod, Ontario's Children, Community and Social Services Minister makes an announcement on welfare rates at the Ontario Legislature in Toronto on Tuesday July 31, 2018. Macleod stated that they will increase 1.5% instead of the 3% promises in the Liberals' pre-election budget. The Tories are also winding down the basic-income pilot project. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Single people enrolled in the program received up to $16,989 per year, minus half of any income they earned. A couple received up to $24,027 per year.

Paskoski was forced out of the workforce because of a chronic disease, she said. 

"You don't know the number of times I've been fired in a hospital bed because I couldn't go to work," she added.

"Going to ODSP was hard.  It's hard on the ego, first of all, and then it's hard to support yourself." 

She added that she is terrified of what might come next.

Paskoski fears that the trusting, supportive relationship built up between basic income recipients and front-line social assistance workers will also crumble under the new system and be replaced by the "jail guard mentality" which previously dominated, she said — a mentality marked by suspicion of recipients and a perceived hyper-vigilance about catching fraud.   

Paskoski said she has no idea what her next steps will be.

"We were promised fast-tracking onto ODSP," she said.  "Do I trust that now?  I don't know.  Not really." 

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