Basic income advocates boarding a bus to protest at Queen's Park

Jessie Golemis boarding a bus toQueen's Park tomorrow morning with plans to make sure Premier Doug Ford knows her name by the end of the day.

The freelance photographer ispart of the province's recently-cancelled basic income pilot project. Before she became part of the program, she was working four jobs and rarely found time to eat.

News the government intends to endthe program left her "furious and devastated," she said.

• Shock and anger in Hamilton after province says it'll cancel the basic income project

• Hamilton basic income advocates planning protest, considering suing the province

So she'll be joining a group of advocates who plan to pack a school bus and head to Queen's Park Wednesday to make sure their voice is heard.

We're not lazy. We're trying to build lives and build up this society we live in.- JessieGolem, basic income program participant

"I want Doug Ford and (Minister of Community Services) Lisa MacLeod to know my name, and I want them to know the names of my friends who are affected by cancelling this program," she said. "They are causing unnecessary suffering without any sort of recourse."

Tom Cooper from the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction is helping organize the protest. He said about 30 people are expected to board the bus that will leave from Hamilton at 8 a.m.

The group plans to sit in during Question Period and to speak with several politicians.

"The government's decision to cancel the basic income pilot is harmful and not based on evidence," he said.

• Ford government ditched basic income pilot project before any data landed, researcher says

More than 4,000 people from Thunder Bay, Lindsay, Hamilton, Brantford and Brant Countyreceived monthlybasic income through paymentsthe program, while another 2,000 or soreceived compensation for filling out research surveys.

After announcing the government'sintention to end the program in late July, MacLeod told reporters the project was expensive and"clearly not the answer for Ontario families."

That's not what Cooper had been hearing. He said he's been told "amazing stories" bypeople in Hamilton about how the program had changed their lives. Now that progress is in jeopardy.

"People were told they'd be in the program forthree years and made plans to go back to school or stabilize their housing situation and now they don't know what they'll do," he said.

Buck a beer tough to swallow

The government's announcement about the return of buck a beer isn't helping, he added.

"For the Ford government to make an announcement about $1 beer so soon after cancelling the program is deeply disappointing and really a choice the government needs to look at a again."

Cooper said the group has a few meetings lined up with a fewNDPMPPsand has been trying to organize a sit down withMacLeod, but so far they haven't heard back.

Petition tops 16K signatures

Advocates have also been stunned by support for an online petition to save the program that's already gatheredmore than 16,000 signatures.

Golem's hope for Wednesday is that the government will hear her concerns,or, at the very least, her fellow Ontarians.

"Basic income gave me focus. It bought me time. It gave me relief," she said.

"We're not leeching off the system. We're not lazy. We're trying to build lives and build up this society we live in."