The need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic has left the federal and provincial governments scrambling to make changes to keep Canadians’ financial arrangements from imploding as large parts of the economy grind to a halt.

There have been changes to unemployment insurance, evictions in Ontario are forbidden, banks are deferring mortgage payments, and a whole new array of financial support programs for individuals and businesses are being rolled out to keep everyone afloat.

But the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Board of Health is calling on the federal government to implement a less-complicated solution: a guaranteed basic income.

“I know the feds are proposing all kinds of things, but it’s not as simple as it seems,” board member Conny Glenn said at its meeting on Wednesday.

“There’s still a lot of red tape for people to get the help when they need it, and since this pandemic is going to be a marathon, we are going to see a lot of problems start to manifest as people can no longer afford to take care of themselves.”

Many of the measures being put in place to relieve financial pressure on people and businesses are just creating new problems, Glenn argued. Deferred mortgage payments will simply be made later, with more interest added on. The ban on evictions means renters won’t lose their homes if they can’t pay rent, but it leaves small landlords who make their living off those properties with no income.

After some discussion, the board unanimously adopted the following motion that will be sent to the local MP and MPP, the Ontario and federal finance ministers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford:

“The KFL&A Board of Health requests that the federal government provide a basic income support to all Canadians and that the federal government legislate banks to provide mortgage deferral with no penalties and compound interest.”

A guaranteed basic income is a policy idea that has been gaining increasing popularity in recent years, where the government guarantees every Canadian a livable income regardless of whether they work.

The idea has been held up as a solution to the problem of poverty, free people to follow more gratifying forms of work without worrying about survival, and even offset the job losses caused by increasing automation. Now the board of health is suggesting it as a way to get through the economic disruption of the pandemic.

Although the resolution specifically asks for the federal government to implement a basic income, the idea has been experimented with in Ontario already. The previous provincial Liberal government was running pilot projects in various Ontario cities until they were cancelled after 10 months by the recently elected Progressive Conservatives.

Kingston and the Islands MPP Ian Arthur is very much in favour of Ontario reviving the idea of a guaranteed basic income to support people through the economic turmoil of the next weeks and months.

“We (in the NDP) have already been pushing for this. This was one of our biggest requests for the economic statement that came out (on Wednesday). We want to see a $2,000 basic income for people during this crisis, but it wasn’t in there,” Arthur said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given public health organizations across the country more political clout than they have had in decades. Both the federal and provincial governments have been deferring to decisions made by public health experts. But Arthur is skeptical the Ford government will follow advice to create a basic income, given the government’s hostility to the idea in the past.

The Whig-Standard also reached out to Kingston and the Islands MP Mark Gerretsen to see if he will be pushing the idea from within the government but did not receive a response on Thursday.

ahale@postmedia.com

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