Former premier Kathleen Wynne said she regrets that her government did not bring in the now-scrapped basic income pilot project earlier during their time in power.

"I wish that we had done it sooner," the Don Valley West MPP said in response to a question from a basic income pilot participant at the Hamilton Public Library Monday.

The previous leader of Ontario's Liberal party said she was "fighting back tears" as she delivered the keynote address at an appreciation day for basic income participants.

The Wynne government launched the project, which included 4,000 participants from test sites in Hamilton-Brantford, Lindsay and Thunder Bay, in April 2017, providing recipients with an annual guaranteed income of up to $17,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples, less 50 per cent for income earned.

"I needed something that was going to give us evidence that would be demonstrable that this program worked and that we needed to take the evidence and incorporate that into government policy," she said.

In July, the Progressive Conservative government decided to scrap the project just over a year after its launch and following a promise to keep it during last spring's election campaign — a move Wynne called a "betrayal" of a promise and of the people "who were counting on this pilot to give the government information that would make their lives better."

Recipients, including 1,000 from the local area, received their final payments last week.

Despite the cancellation, initial data collection from participants showed more people contributing to their communities, including through securing work and finishing courses, Wynne said. These were just a couple of the things she said she hoped would allow people to lead more "dignified" and "independent" lives.

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"That notion that people choose to live in poverty is so wrong and so stupid," she said. "Why? Why would someone choose to live in poverty?"

Monika Ciolek, one of the event's MCs and a local pilot participant, said basic income "freed (her) from the chains" of social assistance.

For Jodi Dean, basic income provided hope. The money helped with her family's finances as she raises a child with special needs and allowed her to go back to school temporarily.

"The hope was ripped away," she said during a panel discussion Monday, noting she's now back in "survival mode."

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Tom Cooper of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, which helped organize the event, said the gathering offered a way to thank participants for sharing their stories to increase public awareness about basic income.

"I don't think they should discount the impact the pilot has really made," he told The Spectator.

He said the event also gave pilot participants access to representatives, including those from Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program.

The next step is to continue advocating for a national basic income project ahead of the federal election, he said.

Also ahead is a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against the Ford government over its early cancellation of the project filed by four basic income participants from the Lindsay area.

Stephen Moreau, a partner at Toronto law firm Cavalluzzo LLP, told those gathered Monday the class action is on behalf of all basic income participants.

"I'm not going to promise certainty like the government did," he said. "Class actions are what's left when governments let us down."

npaddon@thespec.com

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