This is an open letter to MPP Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Community and Social Services

Dear Minister MacLeod,

We are writing in response to your government's decision to end the Basic Income Pilot program in Ontario. We strongly disagree with your decision to end this pilot prematurely and without regard for the demonstrably positive impact that this program was having upon the lives of people living in poverty in our province.

As such, we respectfully urge you to reconsider a policy decision that will only serve to deepen the experience of poverty for millions of Ontario's children, families and seniors.

The Halton Poverty Roundable is a registered charity and a leader in connecting, educating and acting on issues related to poverty in Halton. In our community, one in 10 of our neighbours do not know where their next meal will come from and one in three seniors are living below the poverty line.

Our communities of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills have over 37,000 individuals who struggle daily to survive on low incomes or who live in poverty.

Minister MacLeod, the conclusion of the first phase of the Basic Income Pilot in April of this year, brought with it an abundance of first-hand accounts of the difference that basic income had made to people's lives. The decision to abandon the pilot will cause needless difficulties for the participants struggling to escape poverty.

Given the initial success of the program, we cannot understand the immediate need for cancellation. Surely, it would have been prudent to conclude the pilot and use the resulting data in the development of social policy.

We are hopeful that your government's announcement to reform social assistance in the next 100 days includes an inclusive and transparent process, collaboration across all sectors and a fulsome consultation process including those living with the challenges of poverty.

As you may know, having a 100-day timeline to reform the entire social assistance program will be met with challenges, including the potential for increases of punitive and ineffective approaches and models being implemented, the reduction of supports under the guise of decreasing resource costs and a lack of understanding of the lived experience of being on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program.