Thunder Bay joins call for feds to take over basic income pilot

The City of Thunder Bay has joined three other Ontario communities in calling for the federal government to take over and continue running the basic income pilot project.

The provincial government announced this summer it was winding down the pilot, which saw low-income individuals and families provided with a guaranteed income.

The pilot was initially slated to run for three years. It launched in April 2017.

Now, the mayors of Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Kawartha Lakes, and Brantfordhave sent a letter to Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Jean-Yves Duclos asking the federal government to take over the pilot, and keep it running.

"This was supposed to be a three-year project, and they were supposed to assess it," Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs said."And the feds were actually paying close attention to this, because they're looking at a national program, obviously."

• Ontario's basic income pilot to end March 2019

Hobbs said Thunder Bay city council unanimously supported his signing the letter. No response had been received as of Friday.

Hobbs said the program was working in Thunder Bay.

"The four mayors felt that this program needs to continue so that they can do an in-depth study, and a complete study," he said. "Not only that, there's people that are involved that have already probably signed on for upgrades in their housing and education, things like that. They're going to be left high and dry not fair to them."