Basic income class action lawsuit takes another step forward
The class action lawsuit launched by four Lindsay residents who were enrolled in the Ontario Basic Income Pilot has moved another step forward.
In March of 2024 the Advocate first reported that the lawsuit had been certified by the court. Today, in this new formal notice of certification approved by the court, the notice has now been widely disseminated to the class. The Advocate reached out to Cavalluzzo LLP Barristers & Solicitors, the law firm in Toronto spearheading the class action lawsuit, for comment.
Stephen Moreau, Kaley Duff, and Ramna Safeer as class counsel, sent this written statement:
“Once a case is certified, which means the court approves the case to continue as a class action, the class who are included in the case have to be formally notified of the certification. The form and content of this Notice of Certification must be approved by the Court. We received Court approval recently, and now on Tuesday, March 17, Notice of Certification will be disseminated to the class. The case will now proceed before the Court and move towards the second stage: the common issues trial, which is where the Court will decide the legal issues that were certified.”
Today’s notice will provide class members with information about the case, next steps, and how to opt out of the action if they wish. In this instance, under Ontario law, anyone who fits the class definition and who had been receiving basic income will automatically be included in the class unless they specifically choose to be excluded by opting out.
If the class action lawsuit is successful at the common issues trial, the class action will proceed to the third and final stage, which is when an adjudicator will determine how much money each individual class member is entitled.
The lawsuit was initiated by local residents Dana Bowman, Grace Marie Doyle Hillion, Susan Lindsay, and Tracey Mechefske.
The Ontario Basic Income Pilot was initiated by the province in 2017 under the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne. It was set up in three areas – Hamilton region, Thunder Bay area, and Lindsay. Almost 4,000 people were involved, with 1,840 participants from Lindsay. It was set to run for three years.
A basic income can take many forms, but at its core it is a payment to eligible families or individuals to ensure a minimum income level regardless of employment status. Participants at the time received:
- Up to $16,989 per year for a single person, less 50 per cent of any earned income
- Up to $24,027 per year for a couple, less 50 per cent of any earned income
- Up to an additional $6,000 per year for a person with a disability
Participants could go to school to further their education or continue to work while receiving the basic income. The basic income amount decreased by 50 cents for every dollar an individual earns through work.
When the Conservative government won the subsequent election in 2018, one of the first policy decisions it made was to cancel the pilot, despite a campaign promise to let the three-year pilot play out.
Payments ended prematurely in March of 2019, leaving hundreds of people in a lurch.
In a previous interview with the Advocate, Dana Bowman says the “rug was pulled out from under us” when Ford cancelled the pilot, “and I will not forget that day, how it affected me and others around me.”
I opposed the project because I felt and still feel that there is enough data from other more comprehensive studies to support implementing a federal guaranteed income program. I felt the Ontario sample was too small and that the project would benefit lawyers more than it would the relatively few participants. If done properly, as Senators Hugh Segal and Art Eggleton, and Nobel Prize winning Libertarian American economist, Milton Friedman recommended, a federal basic income program could even save taxpayers $millions per year. Having enough income to afford shelter, food, clothing, transportation and communication should be considered a human right, not something one must grovel for or that is provided only to a select few who are not labeled lazy or blamed for their poverty. The biggest cost of poverty in Canada is its administration; the six figures we pay the bureaucracy that constantly needs more and more poverty to grow its income, benefits, and personnel. Add to that the huge cost of the shelter system and it is easy to understand how eligibility determined by AI analysis of income tax returns and benefits distributed by software would save us all a bundle. The assumption that the poor can’t manage money or that they are all drugs addicts and mentally ill is a false stereotype. The vast majority can manage just fine without needing to pay social workers six figures to monitor what they eat and where they spend their money. For those few who are targets of crime or who need help to pay their basic needs, a trustee could be assigned to distribute daily/weekly allowances but apart from that, the poor should be respected enough by society to leave them alone and let them live their lives as they see fit. With AI replacing more and more labour (including in law and medicine where I have no doubt AI will do a better job) while a few become $trillionaires, the need for government guaranteed income programs is becoming increasingly urgent. Best wishes to the class action petitioners. I’m pretty sure an AI-administered legal system would have paid them out by now.
This is good news. It is also very helpful to have the process explained in basic language and not legalize.
Thanks to The Advocate for ensuring that the public can be aware.
Hi, my name is Stephen Gordon. I was on that pilot program. I heard there was a lawsuit I would like to know if anything went forward
I’m if I’m entitled to anything. Thank you.
Stephen…you are automatically and already a part of the class action lawsuit. The lawsuit has to be won, first. It’s not at that point yet.
How long will it take for the good people to get their money ? Ford will drag his feet !
I am a low income person in Ottawa and I fully support Basic Income and the class action in Ontario regarding the cancellation of the pilot program for Basic Income.
People like Doug Ford and many other politicians and even well to do ordinary citizens are ignorant when it comes to those a lot less well off, including those with disabilities. They are so accustomed to be being pampered in luxury that they are blind to anything and anybody else around them. They are not only blind, they go out of their way to suppress those living in poverty with a set of policies that make it harder for people with low income to move up, participate fully, or be heard. There will come a day for some, and eventually many, many more, that they will open their eyes and see the reality of what it is like to worry and lose sleep and eventually become ill over having not enough food and having to rely on food banks. The worry of having to pay unaffordable rent, keeping up with bills, or upkeeping homes, if they are lucky to have one, etc,. Having no money for anything else.
Thing is friends that that day has already come for many — first through tariff‑related job losses, and will, for many many others with the advent of AI. They will see what it’s like to be poor because of the countless jobs across the whole economy that will be wiped out.
I wish no ill will to anybody. However it is my hope that maybe the well to do citizens, that have been so blind, will see, causing politicians and other policy makers to have no choice but to act and implement Basic Income policies for all Canadians. I have no doubt in my mind that people who are this against now will be sorry that they allowed so many people to suffer needlessly now and in the past.
Please start reaching out to your provincial and federal members of government, even your local city counsellor or mayor. Let’s get this thing done.
Thanks for listening and I accept any comments in response. All the best.
Good thing we spent the last 10 years destroying our economy instead of building it. Now we are convincing folks their poverty is someone else’s fault and only the government can save them.