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Basic income guarantee pilot information session scheduled for Nov. 23

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A group dedicated to countering poverty is planning to investigate what constitutes a living wage in Sarnia-Lambton.

“I would say it’s a minimum of $15 to start with,” said Karen Mathewson, chairperson of the Sarnia-Lambton Poverty Reduction Network.

A network sub-committee is planning in 2017 to look into calculating the wage – designed to cover food, clothing, shelter and transportation, while still allowing decent quality of life, she said.

“There’s a lot of things that you have to take a look at in your community – how much a basket of food costs; how much is car insurance; how much daycare costs.”

Chatham-Kent’s Prosperity Roundtable recently announced that community’s living wage at $15.86 per hour, based on a family of four with two parents working full-time.

Businesses in communities where such wages have been established are being encouraged to pay their employees at the standard, with the Ontario Living Wage Network calling the move a benefit for everyone in the community.

“It's helping to drive economic growth and create more jobs,” network co-ordinator Tom Cooper said in Chatham-Kent last month.

The minimum wage in Ontario is $11.40 per hour.

Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent may be comparable, but that needs to be looked into, Mathewson said.

Meanwhile, Sarnia-Lambton is still waiting to hear if its bid to be a test site for a provincial basic-income-guarantee pilot project will be approved, she said. Lambton County Council passed a motion earlier this year asking for the designation.

A recent discussion paper – Finding A Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot Project for Ontario, by Hugh Segal – calls for people on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability in designate communities to receive $1,320 per month minimum, over a period of at least three years. The aim is to see if the added funds make a difference in things like emergency room use, pursuit of post-secondary education, and other life and career choices.

The suggested start date for the basic income pilot is March 2017, and for three communities – in northern and southern Ontario, and a First Nation community – to take part, along with one randomized control trial in a major urban centre.

It’s important money not be diverted from existing support programs to fund the pilot, Mathewson has said.

At a recent poverty rally in Sarnia, it was said the city feeds 3,800 people per month via food banks, and houses 22 people per night in homeless shelters.

A free information event on the concept is being hosted by the Sarnia-Lambton network on Nov. 23, 7-9 p.m., at the Lambton College Event Centre.

Guest speakers include Dr. Sudit Ranade, Lambton County’s medical officer of health, social work professor Tracy Smith-Carrier, from King’s University College in London, and Western University business professor Mike Moffatt.

“We’re hoping lots of people come out,” Mathewson said.

 

tkula@postmedia.com

 

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