A Canadian Province Just Passed a Resolution for Universal Basic Income

futurism.com

3 points·dean··3 comments

Canada's federal government implements a policy of equalization payments[1] to offset & balance "fiscal capacity" (the ability to pay taxes). Prince Edward Island, the Canadian province in question, is a province that is targeted to receive around 3.9K CAD per capita over 2016-2017[2] in federal transfer payments.

I'm curious to find out whether the PEI UBI program will result in an increase, or whether UBI will be somewhat self-sustaining from the current PEI working resident tax-base.

The actual motion text, which isn't very substantive because it only asks that a partnership be pursued with the federal government to fund the UBI pilot, can be found on the PEI Legislative Assembly page.[3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments_in_Canad...

[2] https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp#Prince

[3] http://www.assembly.pe.ca/progmotions/onemotion.php?number=8...

I doubt it's self sustaining, the maritime provinces are very poor with high unemployment and have been that way since the fisheries industry collapsed. PEI is a little more self-sustaining because they have things like potato farming but their unemployment rate is on the higher end of the Canadian spectrum and PEI is one of the biggest beneficiaries of equalization from the rest of Canada.

In short, they're not going to be paying for this out of pocket, the other provinces are going to be footing the bill for their experiment in a time when other provinces are tightening their belts.

I agree with your comment, except for the part about PEI being one of the biggest equalization beneficiaries: Yukon, the Northwest Territories & Nunavut received $24K, $29K & $41K per capita[1], respectively, in equalization payments last year, almost 10x PEI's per capita payment.

[1] https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp

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