“The more targeted programs you introduce, the more gaps you introduce into the system,” said Evelyn Forget, a professor of economics and community health sciences at the University of Manitoba. “The more gaps there are, the more opportunities there are for people to slide through.”

Senators also questioned whether a basic income would create a disincentive for Canadians to work.

Read here

The University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine began as Western Canada’s first medical school in 1883 with 13 Manitoba physicians and one school inspector coming together to establish the Manitoba Medical College, a facility that relied on volunteer instructors and had no building to call its own. The first lecture was given November 21, 1883 by Dr. R. J. Blanchard at the Collegiate Institute near Portage and Main, and thus began the future of medical education in Manitoba.

Today, the Max Rady College of Medicine remains the province’s only medical school and is known for leadership on social accountability, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and anti-racism initiatives, Indigenous health, interprofessional collaboration and a robust research enterprise in the clinical and basic sciences, including a focus on global public health, infectious diseases and population health research.

On Saturday, November 18, 2023, we will hold a gala anniversary event  in celebration of our proud history of excellence in education, discovery, scholarship, clinical service and community engagement.

Join us for the gala at the RBC Convention Centre, starting with a cocktail reception at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m..

Our emcee for the evening will be Tito Daodu [B.Sc.(Med)/13, MD/13], a pediatric surgeon at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary and proud UM medicine alumna. Dr. Daodu has been actively involved in public health and anti-racism research, focusing on improving surgical outcomes and making surgical care more equitable and accessible in Canada and worldwide.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Evelyn Forget, professor of community health sciences at the Max Rady College of Medicine and academic director at the Manitoba Research Data Centre. As a health economist, she has gained international renown for advancing anti-poverty initiatives such as guaranteed basic income.

Guests can also expect lively entertainment by Ça Claque!, offering French Canadian and Métis folklore – traditional as well as contemporary – through music and dance.

If you are alum, faculty, staff, partner or friend, we invite you to be part of this unique event celebrating Max Rady College of Medicine’s leadership and innovation over the past 140 years. Tickets are available now on our Eventbrite page.

Sponsorship opportunities are going fast but are still available at a wide range of levels, which each include corporate tables of eight as well as recognition at the event and online.

Proceeds from the gala will directly support vital bursaries for Max Rady College of Medicine MD and graduate students.

Forget is the recipient of the 2022 Dr. John M. Bowman Memorial Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation Award in recognition of the important impacts of her work to improve the lives of Canadians living in poverty. Her book “Basic Income for Canadians” was republished in 2020 with a new focus on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also published “Radical Trust: Basic Income for Complicated Lives”, with co-authored with Hannah Owczar in 2021. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an Officer of the Order of Canada. UM Today caught up with her recently to learn more about her research.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your research.

I originally became an economist almost by accident. I was an undergrad in the mid-1970s in Toronto, at Glendon College, which is part of York University. Like other universities, York had distribution requirements, and so I found myself in need of another social science and the only thing that fit my timetable was economics. At the time, economics seemed like the discipline of the establishment. I was a psychology major, and I hesitated for a good long time.

So, I was really dreading it, but the professor introduced this experiment that was going on called Mincome. It was a basic income experiment that took place in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba. I was completely taken aback because I was expecting all this talk about inflation and interest rates and instead, we’re talking about people and revolutionizing social programs. Like a lot of students at that time, I thought that maybe we could use the tools of economics to bring about some real social change – to use economics to make the lives of ordinary people a bit better. So, I changed my major from psychology to economics.

My first tenure track job was at the University of Winnipeg and then I was recruited to UM. I was in the economics department here for a long time, and I was working primarily in the history and philosophy of the discipline. In 2000, I transferred to Community Health Sciences and began working in health economics.  It doesn’t take very long in this environment to recognize that we spend a lot of time trying to deal with the consequences of poverty through the healthcare system and so my interest returned to better, more efficient, and more dignified ways to address poverty and, by addressing poverty, to bring about better population health.

Why is this research important?

In Canada we have a lot of different programs to address poverty, but they’re disjointed; people fall through the gaps. People who need help are forced to apply separately for each different program; each program has different eligibility requirements and different processes for accessing them. Sometimes participating in one program makes you ineligible for another, and you find yourself being asked to return money you’ve already spent trying to buy groceries or shoes for your kids. Very few people actually receive all of the support to which they are entitled because the system is so complex and difficult to access. All kinds of terrible things happen, and so one of the things that basic income does is to try to clean it up. If we had basic income, people could access support in a coherent way, and that would ensure that they have the resources they need to live with dignity and to think beyond just putting food on the table. And, for those of us who think a lot about the social and structural determinants of health, a society in which everyone has enough money to meet their needs is a game-changer.  

What does the Rh Award mean to you?

The Rh Awards are a wonderful recognition, especially for the many people that have contributed to projects like mine over the years. I work very closely with students and colleagues across Canada and around the world, so it’s not just an individual award. It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve made progress and we continue to make progress. We now have two groups of Canadians with access to a basic income – families with kids under 18 who receive the Canada Child Benefit, and seniors who receive OAS and, if they qualify, the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Programs for people with disabilities are slowly being transformed into something like a basic income. Some of the pilots around the world are being made permanent. We’re making progress.

This award recognizes the progress that sometimes seems so elusive.

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

We need a basic income for working-age Canadians.

The gaps that still exist are mainly for working age adults and that’s what our focus has been on most recently. It’s not hard to see that poverty plays a big role in health and, especially, the development of chronic conditions.  I’d like to see all Canadians have access to the resources they need to live decent lives.

What about you would people find surprising?

I’m a beekeeper, maybe that’s a surprise?

I make honey. One of the cool things about keeping bees is — I’m not a patient person, but you can’t be impatient when you’re dealing with bees because, you know, they’ll attack. One of the things you really need to do is calm yourself when you walk into the center of it. You can understand why monasteries and convents used to keep bees, there is a very strong spiritual dimension to it. I have little land in the Interlake close to Gimli, and my bees like it very much.

Any advice for early career researchers and students?

I think one of the things that you become aware of as you go through life as an academic is that things happen to you over which you have no control. All you can do is — I’m going to use this huge cliche here – to play the hand you’re dealt. But play it.

I’m not arguing that you just passively accept whatever comes your way, but we’re all operating under constraints and those constraints change over time. I think you need to be alert to the opportunities that emerge and move forward on that basis. Don’t stop moving, keep playing your cards.

Radical Trust advocates that all citizens in a wealthy nation like Canada should be guaranteed a modest standard of living. In a basic income system, the Government of Canada would keep all Canadian residents out of poverty, whether they are unemployed, disabled or earning below the poverty line.

Recipients of guaranteed basic income would receive money they could use at their discretion. Unlike other social services, recipients would not be restricted on how they spend the money. Radical Trust argues that in turn, citizens would make healthier choices, putting less strain on hospitals and other public services.

As of 2019, Statistics Canada reported 3.7 million Canadians live below the poverty line.

“People living in poverty know what they need and it’s not always what policymakers think they need. Basic income really is radical in a sense,” says Forget. “It’s saying we have trust in you to know what you need and how to meet those needs. Basic income is giving people the money to make their lives better.”

Forget is an economist and academic director, Manitoba Research Data Centre at the University of Manitoba. She has just been appointed an officer of the country’s highest honour, the Order of Canada, for her groundbreaking anti-poverty research and last fall was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the country’s most esteemed association of scholars, scientists and artists. Radical Trust is her fourth book on basic income.

“I’d written other books about basic income from a policy perspective and it seemed to me what was missing was how the people who would be affected by basic income felt about it,” she says.

Forget and Owczar spent the past two years interviewing young people leaving the foster care system, those living with disabilities, women escaping domestic violence and people living in poverty to better understand how basic income could change lives.

Interviewees explain their lived experiences living below or at the poverty line, creating a compelling and empathetic portrait of how our current social safety nets fail the most vulnerable.

“Universally what we found is that people living in poverty really just need money that they can choose to do what they need with it. They know how to make their own decisions, they don’t need systems telling them how to spend money,” says Owczar, also director on the steering committee of the Basic Income Canada Youth Network (BICYN.)

Forget first heard about basic income as an undergrad during a mandatory economics course at York University. At the time, she planned on pursuing a psychology major before becoming fascinated by the world of economics. When her professor was discussing Mincome, the Manitoba Basic Income Experiment that launched in the ’70s, Forget was captivated by the idea.

“I followed that project during my undergraduate years because I just thought basic income is a real solution, this addresses a lot of difficulties with existing programs,” she says. 

Radical Trust stresses that those living in poverty have complicated lives. Many of those living below the poverty line have had fewer opportunities to escape poverty. That doesn’t mean they have necessarily made mistakes or shouldn’t have access to resources that could improve their lives.

“What we wanted to do was humanize poverty,” said Owczar. “We wanted to highlight that people deserve to live a dignified life regardless of their circumstances.”

The Canadian Government responded to mass unemployment due to COVID-19 pandemic mandatory shutdowns in March 2020 with the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Radical Trust asks its readers, why couldn’t we support those living in poverty with a similar system?

Radical Trust was published by ARP Books.

Presented by the Governor-General, the Order honours people whose service shapes our society; whose innovations ignite our imaginations; and whose compassion unites our communities.

They will be presented with their insignia at investiture ceremonies to be held on future dates.

The new list includes 10 individuals from the UM community, including The Honourable Murray Sinclair [LLB/79, LLD/02], who was appointed a Companion to the Order, for his commitment to the representation of Indigenous legal issues, and for his dedication to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

New Officers of the Order of Canada include:

Dr. Evelyn Forget, professor in Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, and academic director at the Manitoba Research Data Centre. Dr. Forget’s work on MINcome as a way of addressing economic issues continues to be cited by researchers. She was also was appointed as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada in 2021.

Tomson Highway [DLitt/17], for his sustained and distinguished contributions to theatre and Canadian culture as one of our foremost playwrights and novelists.

Roger Léveillé [BA/66, MA/68, DLitt/13], for his innovative literary achievements, and for supporting generations of Franco-Manitoban artists, thus contributing to the cultural enrichment of Canada.

Ovide William Mercredi [LLB/77, LLD/18], former National Chief, Assembly of First Nations, for his lifelong advocacy of Indigenous rights and non-violence, and for his skillful leadership within and beyond Indigenous communities nationwide.

Jean Riley Senft [LLD/19], for her contributions to the sport of figure skating as one of Canada’s leading judges and promoter of fairer judging rules.

New Members of the Order of Canada:

Dr. Gerald Friesen, UM Distinguished Professor Emeritus, who retired in 2011, for his contributions to Canadian historical discourse through his inclusive and comprehensive research on Indigenous and ethnic groups in western regions.

Léo Robert [BA/78, M. en Ed./03], for his contributions to Francophone education in Manitoba, and for his commitment to preserving and promoting the language province-wide.

Harvey Lyon Secter [BComm/67, LLB/92], former Dean of the Faculty of Law and Chancellor of the University of Manitoba, for his leadership in business, law and academia, and for his philanthropic contributions to local initiatives in Manitoba, notably within the Jewish community.

Robert Irwin Silver [BSc/70, LLD/19], co-owner of the Winnipeg Free Press, for his influential leadership as a businessperson, community builder and philanthropist.

About the Order of Canada

Established in 1967 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Order of Canada is the cornerstone of the Canadian Honours System, and recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.

The Order recognizes people in all sectors of Canadian society. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others and made a difference to Canada.

Dr. Evelyn Forget, who has long studied basic income as a means of reducing poverty, says that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), introduced by the Canadian government last month, proves that existing income security programs such as Employment Insurance (EI) are inadequate.

Dr. Forget is in community health sciences at UM and academic director of the Manitoba Research Data Centre. She is an adjunct scientist with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and a research associate with Ongomiizwin – Research in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

Evelyn Forget.

In recent interviews and editorials, she has argues that measures taken by government during the pandemic show that a universal basic income program is overdue. Critics of such programs have stated that red tape would delay payments to individuals, but the rapid delivery of CERB cheques proves the opposite.

She explains: “The upfront costs of a targeted basic income are much lower than sending everyone a cheque. It’s also a more affordable plan, especially if we take into account the savings to other social programs such as EI, provincial income assistance and the additional burden that poverty places on other programs such as health care.”

Further, she says: “COVID-19 could create a legacy: an income-support system that is efficient, non-stigmatizing, encourages work and is sufficient to provide better health outcomes and liquidity for people and communities. This would be a streamlined national reform vital to the economics of rebuilding and recovery.”

Support for her contention regarding basic income is that there have been successful experiments where it has been tried. Here at home, Mincome, the “Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment,” offered a guaranteed annual income as a pilot project in 1974-1979 to citizens in the small Canadian city of Dauphin.

When Forget compared health outcomes of Dauphin residents with other Manitoba residents, she found that hospital visits dropped 8.5 per cent, there were lower numbers of work-related injuries, fewer emergency room visits from accidents, rates of psychiatric hospitalization, and overall lower rates of mental illness. In addition, since people were getting a basic income, they could focus on other things such as continuing education and training.

“Instead of using the health-care system to treat the consequences of poverty, we’re giving people money upfront to live better lives,” Forget said.

Read Dr. Forget’s editorial co-written with Dr. Hugh Segal here, and an example of her recent media comments here.

As Freakonomics says: A lot of full-time jobs in the modern economy simply don’t pay a living wage. And even those jobs may be obliterated by new technologies. What’s to be done so that financially vulnerable people aren’t just crushed? It may finally be time for an idea that economists have promoted for decades.

Could the Guaranteed Annual Income, once considered a radical notion, now be an idea whose time has come?

The Dutch city of Utrecht recently announced an experiment to determine whether introducing a basic income produces a more effective society. Joseph Ceci, Alberta’s new Finance Minister, proposed a guaranteed income program last year on the election campaign trail. Both Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson have touted similar programs. Now, medical officers of health and boards of health members across Ontario are officially calling for provincial and federal governments to bring in a basic income guarantee.

So what exactly is a Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI)?

GAI has actually been supported by generations of economists and welfare theorists, on the left and right. One version works like a refundable tax credit. If an individual has no income from any source at all, they receive a basic entitlement. As earned income increases, the benefit declines, but less than proportionately. As a result, low-income earners receive partial benefits so that they aren’t worse off than they would have been if they had quit their jobs and relied solely on income assistance.

This means that there is always an incentive to work, and people who work are always better off than they would be if they didn’t work.

So why are such a broad group of people – finance ministers, mayors and medical officers of health – pushing such a program? Poverty, substantial evidence now tells us, is one of the best predictors of poor health. And poor health costs everyone.

Research in Hamilton demonstrated that residents of the Ontario city’s wealthy West Mountain neighbourhood lived, on average, to 86.3 years of age, while average age at death for residents of one of the poorest Hamilton neighbourhoods was only 65.5 years – a shocking gap.

Way back in the 1970s, Manitoba tried implementing a GAI in Winnipeg and in the small town of Dauphin.

In Dauphin, everyone was eligible to participate. A family with no income from other sources would receive 60 per cent of the Statistics Canada low-income cutoff, which varied by family size.

Every dollar received from other sources would reduce benefits by 50 cents. Important for an agriculturally dependent town with a lot of self-employment, the GAI offered stability and predictability. Sudden illness, disability or unpredictable economic events would no longer be financially devastating. The project ran for four years, ending in 1979.

So did the GAI produce anything to report? Remarkably, even this four-year program had strong positive results. Dauphin high school students were more likely to remain in school than had been true in the years before the GAI started or after it stopped.

The health of town residents also improved, with fewer hospitalizations (an 8.5-per-cent reduction), specifically for mental illness, accidents and injuries.

So how much would introducing a GAI across Canada cost?

According to several Queen’s University professors, the cost of replacing social assistance (which includes welfare and disability support) and Old Age Security (which includes a top-up for low-income seniors), plus providing every adult with an annual income of $20,000 and children with an income guarantee of $6,000, would be $40-billion. The Fraser Institute calculates the total cost of Canada’s current income support system (payout plus administrative costs) at $185-billion in 2013.

Our own estimates, which build on existing social programs, range from a gross annual cost of $17-billion for a program that (in today’s dollars) is slightly more generous than was offered in Dauphin, to a “Cadillac” version costing $58-billion that would guarantee everyone a minimum income equal to the low-income cutoff and pay at least some benefits to people earning well above the low-income cutoff.

The cost of a GAI depends on how generous it is, how quickly benefits are phased out with additional income and how existing social programs are affected.

Some of these costs, of course, would be partially recovered from the additional taxes paid by recipients, as well as the lower costs faced by so many other social programs that are driven by poverty. Hospital care alone, for example, cost Canada $63.5-billion in 2014.

Bottom line, whether it’s our calculations or those done by other organizations, a GAI is definitely doable. And it is clear that the potential benefits are substantial.

Maybe it’s time for the rest of Canada to at least look to what Alberta is saying and focus on the health, educational and financial benefits that the Guaranteed Annual Income might offer.