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CAMBRIDGE 90 Main Street cornerstonefurniture.ca /CSHome/CornerstoneHome 50,000 SQUARE FEET OF AMAZING DEALS. SAVE $1,000'S STOREWIDE*! A huge selection of sofas, tables & chairs all on sale. • Giftware and Holiday Décor up to 70% off • Chairs from $25 • Dining Tables from $425 • Sofas from $695 6 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • Thursday, January 5, 2017 By Bill Jackson For the Chronicle The concept of a basic guar-anteed income for Ontarians sounds great on the surface, but the fine print is still in the works. "It's all in how they do it," accord- ing to douglas Bartholomew-saun- ders, the region's community ser- vices commissioner, who said such a program has the potential to bring about sweeping changes within the sector. "What we're talking about is a restructuring of the social safety net in Ontario," he said. The provincial government intends to design and implement a basic income pilot program that it says will build on work being done through the Income security reform Working Group and Poverty reduc- tion strategy. a public forum at Kitchener City hall next Friday, Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m. is part of a province-wide public engagement process. "This will test the view that a basic income could help deliver income supports more efficiently, while improving health, employment and housing outcomes for Ontarians," reads a statement provided by the Ministry of Community and social services. "Basic income is an idea which provides a different approach to income security and reducing pov- erty," the statement said. "It's impor- tant we hear as many views as pos- sible to ensure we get this right." The ministry says it's particularly interested in thoughts about how the pilot program is designed, including who should be eligible, which com- munities to include, and how it will be evaluated. "What they're doing is trying to collect information in order to build a position. It's very difficult to take a firm position at this point because we don't actually know what the province is going to end up doing," B a r t h o l o m e w - s a u n d e r s s a i d . "They're collecting information to determine what they're going to be doing." according to a discussion paper by government advisor hugh segal, Ontario isn't alone in pursuing the idea of a basic guaranteed income. Volunteers, scholars, and advocates around the globe have promoted it for years, and other pilot programs are currently underway in Finland and parts of the netherlands. While segal believes some things can be learned from past studies and existing literature, some questions can only be answered by a freshly designed pilot here in Ontario, he noted. "until no one lives in poverty in Ontario, any amount of people living in poverty is too many and we must therefore look at new ways to address this challenge," said Chris Ballard, minister of housing and the minister responsible for poverty reduction. "Basic income could prove to be an innovative way of bringing more people into communities, as contrib- uting members who can reach their full potential." But in order to create it there needs to be a source of revenue, Bar- tholomew-saunders said. "From what I've read and the theories that I've heard from confer- ences I've attended, it appears that it could be a reduction in other ser- vices and other income support pro- grams to create the basic income, which means we're balancing exist- ing programs against a new program, and it's hard to know at this point what the outcome of that would be." For example, Bartholomew-saun- ders wonders whether people would still have access to other pockets of money for orthotics or dental care if the basic income won't cover the cost. "The other thing is we don't know whether or not the requirement for employment will be part of this pro- gram," he said. "so are we going to give folks a guaranteed income and not expect that they will also seek employment?" according to Bartholomew-saun- ders, LICO (low-income cutoff) is generally agreed to be the marker of low income or poverty. single Ontar- io Works recipients receive 60 per cent less than LICO on a monthly basis. a client in Kitchener receives the same monthly amount as they would living in Toronto or other parts of the province where cost-of- living varies. Critics have called on the prov- ince to tie social assistance rates to cost-of-living in geographical areas, some arguing that poverty in Ontario has only gotten worse under the gov- erning Liberals. But Bartholomew-saunders said it's tough to evaluate poverty reduc- tion strategies because the issue is multisectoral and dependent on numerous variables, including geog- raphy, population growth and the broader economy. In Waterloo region, the num- ber of clients on Ontario works has increased by 35 per cent since 2008 when the global economy entered the great recession. "Those folks who went on social assistance have never been able to leave social assistance since 2008," he said. and, while gains have been made in recent years when it comes to the stock of affordable housing -- the region has added more than 2,000 units during the past decade -- the waitlist in Waterloo region contin- ues to hover around 3,000. Though Bartholomew-saunders applauds the province for looking at a different way to achieve poverty reduction, there are many questions that still need to be answered when it comes to basic guaranteed income, he said. "When you start to answer ques- tions that don't have answers, like, where the money's coming from, which programs will continue to exist, and which ones won't exist ... that's where you have to stop short and on the face of it say that's great, but I want to know the details," Bar- tholomew-saunders said. Public invited to have their say on basic guaranteed income "Until no one lives in poverty in Ontario, any amount of people living in poverty is too many and we must therefore look at new way to address this challenge. Basic income could prove to be an innova- tive way of bringing more people into com- munities." Chris Ballard Minister of housing