by Scott Smith
P.E.I. may be small, but it’s time to think BIG: Basic income guarantee. For some, it’s hard to imagine that there are people who go to bed without adequate shelter, having had enough food to eat that day, or no access to clean drinking water, and the list goes on… But this is a reality for many, including residents in our own province of P.E.I. Then just try to imagine, without these basic human rights, what becomes of your general health, mental health and overall well-being? So why in the year 2022 do we still go to bed each night allowing this to happen? No matter your political stripe on P.E.I., all parties have unanimously signed onto to a tri-party letter of support for P.E.I. to allow for province-wide, universal access of a 5- to 7-year demonstration program on P.E.I. Now it’s time for our federal government to listen to our provincial counterparts and implement this demonstration program on P.E.I. Everything in life needs to start somewhere, and based on the size of our province, it is the perfect location to implement a program such as BIG. We urge the prime minister and federal MPs to come to the table with our P.E.I. government members to continue an immediate plan of action, to see this idea become a reality today. We also ask our federal MPs to lobby colleagues in the Commons in favour of a BIG demonstration for P.E.I. Come on P.E.I., come on Canada – let’s get this done.
PEI Working Group for a Livable Income 