HALIFAX — Advocates are calling on the provincial and federal governments to provide a basic personal income — something they say could be a major step toward eradicating poverty.

Basic Income Guarantee Nova Scotia (BIG-NS) made its case at Province House Wednesday, hosted by NDP MLA Lisa Roberts. The group asked government to study the feasibility of paying a guaranteed basic income to anyone living below the poverty line.

One member of BIG-NS said that even though basic income programs can be costly, they could be paid for with existing government funds by simply reallocating the budget.

“The money is there,” said Pierre Stevens, who is a BIG-NS member and retired Dalhousie University math professor.

BIG-NS chair Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird told reporters a feasibility study for a provincial guaranteed basic income could cost about $50,000. She deferred to Stevens to say more about how the actual program could be realized.

“If the provincial and federal government would work together,” said Stevens, “they could create a basic income at the poverty level that wouldn’t cost them anything from the budgets as they have them right now. So it is extremely feasible, it’s just a question: do they want to do it? Or do they want to keep people in poverty?”

The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently estimated the annual cost of a federal guaranteed basic income at close to $80 billion.

In an interview after the news conference, Stevens said he worries people have the wrong impression of those cost estimates. Funds could be reallocated from social assistance, he said, which would become redundant under a guaranteed basic income program.

In addition, he said, “It would be a huge economic stimulus,” because people would have more freedom to participate in the local economy.

Kay-Raining Bird, who is also a professor of communication sciences and disorders at Dalhousie University, said the need to alleviate poverty is immense.

“Poverty puts people at high risk for toxic stress causing mental and physical health problems, food insecurity, unsafe housing, under- or unemployment, and lower education achievements,” she said.

When asked about how much a basic income should provide to Nova Scotians, Kay-Raining Bird said it could vary by region.

“It would depend upon what the costs in a particular community are. Some figures would be $20,000 a year or $22,000 a year,” she said.

The bottom line is BIG-NS wants to eradicate poverty, she said. One goal of the feasibility study is to determine just how much money that would take.

“What we need to look at is what is the level of, what is the definition of poverty and how can we bring people up so that their basic needs are met,” she said.

Last year, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that her province would pilot a basic income project in Hamilton, Brantford, Brant County, Lindsay and Thunder Bay. For an individual, the province would pay up to $16,989 per year, and up to $24,027 for a couple, less 50 per cent of any other income.

BIG-NS member and anti-poverty activist Wayne MacNaughton spoke at the news conference about his experience living on social assistance — a program that he calls “broken beyond repair.”

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“If you’re on income assistance in Nova Scotia, there’s absolutely never enough money to go around. You’re never gonna be able to get everything that you need, never mind what you want,” he said.

MacNaughton said he’d like to be able to buy healthy food and participate more in his community, but can’t because of financial limitations.

Jennifer Brady, an assistant professor of human nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University, said poverty is costing people their health. A disease like Type 2 diabetes, she said, is largely attributable to poverty.

Brady said food bank usage in Nova Scotia has risen 40 per cent since 2008 — what she called a “shocking and tragic statistic.”

For those living in poverty, Brady said poor health is not the result of bad choices.

“It’s the outcome of living with the material deprivation of poverty as well as the chronic stress of constantly wondering where your next meal is coming from or how you are going to pay the bills,’’ she said.

Premier Stephen McNeil said his government has been working to alleviate poverty through tax cuts, improved income supports and access to affordable housing.

He said he wouldn’t dismiss the request for a feasibility study, but he wasn’t prepared to agree to it either.

“We will look at what that (basic income) looks like for Nova Scotia over time, but whether it becomes public policy or not, that will become a matter of further public debate,” he said.

BIG-NS collected nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition supporting the feasibility study. Labi Kousoulis, minister of labour and advanced education, delivered the petition to his colleagues at the House of Assembly last month.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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