N.S. government has no plans to consider guaranteed basic income

The province's deputy minister of social development says the potential cost and questions about federal support top the reasons why the Nova Scotia government is not prepared to consider the introduction of a guaranteed basic income.

Craig Beaton told reporters Tuesday that the cost to implement the program is “the biggest prohibitive factor.”

“We don’t think that right now is the time to be able to consider looking at this more broadly,” he said following an appearance before the legislature’s standing committee on community services.

Tuesday’s meeting topic was guaranteed basic income, the concept of the government providing everyone with enough money to get them to the poverty line. It’s something multiple municipalities in Nova Scotia have called on the province and Ottawa to consider, but Beaton said there are various factors working against the idea at this time.

Along with the cost — estimated at $1.5 billion to $2 billion by Canada’s parliamentary budget officer — there would also need to be help from the federal government to adjust the tax code.

Beaton said the government has a suite of programs across various departments aimed at addressing poverty and cost-of-living pressures, but for a more manageable hit to the budget than guaranteed basic income.

But advocates who spoke at the meeting say the idea deserves exploration.

They said that while it might cost more up front, there are long-term savings to be had through reducing poverty because of lowered demands on the health-care and justice systems, for example.

Pierre Stevens, the treasurer of Basic Income Nova Scotia, said there is precedent to show that when people are given more money, it can stimulate the economy.

He pointed to the Canada child benefit and Canada emergency response benefit, which was created during the COVID-19 pandemic, as examples.

“Those people that are now living in poverty are going to spend their money in Nova Scotia in buying warm clothes or buying decent food,” he said.

“All of that will have a multiplying effect for Nova Scotia.”

With the general poverty rate and child poverty rate remaining stubbornly high in the province, at 11.5 per cent and 13.4 per cent respectively, Stevens said the government's current approach is not getting the job done.

Stevens and Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, the organization's chair, are calling for an all-party committee to examine the potential benefits of a guaranteed basic income in the province and how it could work.