| Historical Information |
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| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
C-223 – The National Framework for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income Act – starts the process of creating a national universal basic income system.
National Framework
The framework for the national basic income will be created by the Minister of Finance. In order to create this they’ll need to consult a number of people, including:
- The ministers responsible for employment, social development, and disability
- Provincial representatives responsible for these departments, as well as health and education
- Indigenous elders and governing bodies
- Policy developers and political decision makers
- Experts on basic income programs
- Any other relevant stakeholders
The framework itself needs to include measures to:
- Determine what counts as a livable basic income for each region in Canada. This includes things like the goods and services needed to live in that region and the cost to access them.
- Create national standards for health and social supports that complement a basic income program, and include guidance on the creation of these programs in every province.
- Ensure that participation in education, training, or the labour market isn’t needed to qualify for basic income.
- Ensure that the basic income program doesn’t result in a decrease in services or benefits meant to meet an individual’s health or disability needs. Good example here is that people collecting disability in Ontario can lose those benefits based on how much money they make. C-223 would need to make sure any money from the basic income program doesn’t count against this.
Reports on C-223
The Minister of Finance will have one year to put together this framework and present it to the House. The Minister then needs to report on the progress and effectiveness of C-223 every two years after this.
Progress
C-223 went up for its Second Reading vote and failed, with the NDP, Greens, and a surprising number of Liberals voting in favour of it but not enough for it to pass.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 28 | 120 | 0 |
| Conservative | 0 | 118 | 0 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 0 | 3 | 0 |
The Liberals don’t believe Canada is ready for such a broad program, and point out the more targeted programs they’ve been implementing to help with poverty. A lot of Liberal MPs seem to disagree with this, enough that I can’t single them out like I normally would but you can find them in the vote record.
The Conservatives are against it as they’d rather see more work to encourage business investment. They talk about how Canadian productivity has declined, making us less competitive in the global market, and that focusing on growing the economy will do more to help bring people out of poverty.
The Bloc Québécois are against it because it would be replacing social service programs, which are provincial jurisdiction and as such not something the feds are allowed to do.
Because it failed its Second Reading vote C-223 will not be proceeding.
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