As Ontario faces a certified class action, former recipients of basic income pilot share their struggles
Addition: just noticed that it’s a double-post (sorry), you’ll find a thread on this topic already here: lemmy.ca/post/17890643
The Ontario basic income pilot project (OBI) was launched by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government in 2017 — in Lindsay, Hamilton and Thunder Bay — with the goal of learning how a basic income would affect people’s well-being over a three-year period.
It was axed in the summer the following year, shortly after the Conservatives under Premier Doug Ford came into power.
Since the pilot project ended, the cost of living has continued to climb across Ontario and more people are relying on food banks.
Ontario has indicated it won’t appeal the court’s decision to certify the lawsuit. That means the case has entered the second stage — the common issues trial.
Tracey Mechefske, who goes by Willow, is one of the designated plaintiffs in the class action. She participated in the OBI in Lindsay and said it allowed her to start a skin-care business, Raventree Naturals.
For her, participating in the lawsuit has been a way to channel her anger “in a positive way.”
In the years it’s taken for the lawsuit to be certified, “We’ve had people die by suicide because they were going to be forced back into this hole that they couldn’t get out of,” Mechefske said.
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