Guaranteed Livable Basic Income
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Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI) in Canada refers to the debate and trials with basic income, negative income and related welfare systems in Canada. The debate goes back to the 1930s when the social credit movement had ideas around those lines.
During the decades that followed, GLBI has been supported in various forms by different Political Parties, which have at times been at odds with how to implement such a strategy while not impeding on Provincial jurisdiction.
Introduction
In 1935, the Employment and Social Insurance Act was enacted by the Parliament of Canada, during the final months of the government of R. B. Bennett. The Act was intended to introduce a nationwide employment insurance scheme, and also convince voters that Bennett was willing to intervene aggressively in the economy, as President Roosevelt had done in the United States with the New Deal. However, the Act was not incumbent of any type of Guaranteed Income.
In 1936, the Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada, as unemployment insurance was found to fall under one of the heads of power assigned by Canada's constitution to the provinces. The ruling of the Supreme Court was upheld by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1937. The Employment and Social Insurance Act therefore failed to achieve its policy goal, as Canada was left for a time without unemployment insurance.
This change in position followed the Privy Council's decision in the Aeronautics Reference, which declared:
There may also be cases where the Dominion is entitled to speak for the whole, and this not because of any judicial interpretation of ss. 91 and 92, but by reason of the plain terms of s. 132, where Canada as a whole, having undertaken an obligation, is given the power necessary and proper for performing such an obligation.
History
William Aberhart, Premier of Alberta, was inspired by Major C. H. Douglas Social Credit theory and tried to implement a basic income for Albertans during the 1930s. However, he was thwarted in his attempts by the Federal Government of the time. [1]