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Ontario’s Conservative government is “winding down” the basic income pilot project put into place by the former Liberal government.

Launched in 2017, the program was slated to run for three years and paid some 4,000 low-income Ontarians up to $16,989 a year, $24,027 for couples. The only string was a 50% clawback on additional earned income.

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Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod argued giving away money “with no strings attached” fails to help people break the cycle of poverty, re-enter the workforce or get their lives back on track.

“We need to do more than just help people remain mired in poverty,” MacLeod said in a press release that also announced plans to increase social assistance payments by 3% and within 100 days “to develop and announce a sustainable Social Assistance program that focuses on helping people lift themselves out of poverty.”

Are the Tories on the right track?

One key attraction of income support programs is the potential to dramatically reduce bureaucracy and red tape. Paying the poor directly theoretically means fewer government workers.