NYCH’s twice-annual Leadership and Community Engagement training offers in-depth lessons on the structure of government, field trips to City Hall and Queen’s Park, and a practicum project based on a civic issue of their choice. In 2016, the spring cohort garnered over 20,000 signatures on a petition supporting their cause: basic income for all Canadians. We asked two of the petition's leaders, Reza and Feroza, to share why they chose the issue of basic income and what they gained from the leadership training.

Which issue does your community project address? And why is it important to you?

Reza: The intent of our petition is to advocate for a basic income policy that can work with existing income security programs to help people live a more dignified life. We came up with this idea when, as a part of the class exercise, we used a "2x2 Matrix" to prioritize activities that we thought of as urgent and important..

Out of all, we deemed basic income to be the one with both the highest urgency and most importance. This was due to our belief that our existing income security system in place has become ineffective when it comes to helping people afford life’s basic necessities – food, housing, and other general expenses.

Feroza: For me, I am motivated to pursue a Basic Income Agenda, because there are 5 million people currently living in poverty here in Canada. In particular, 1.3 million children. Yes, the government speaks of the middle class and the recent Canada Child Benefit that lifted 300,000 children out of poverty, but what are they doing for the 1.3 million who still experience poverty?