Tag: Basic Income

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WRGreens @ THE MUSEUM

The event was a series of round tables connecting people with candidates, interspersed with 3-5 minute talks by candidates and representatives from the local culture scene. The speaking order was determined by drawing names out of a bowl, and as it happened, our Green Candidates dominated the beginning of the evening.

Waterloo Candidate Zdravko Gunjevic started the evening off with a look at the importance of Public Libraries in our shared culture (if you listen closely you’ll hear an Ontario Cabinet Minister heckle him)

Next up, Kitchener-Conestoga Candidate Bob Jonkman considers the impact of culture on our most vulnerable citizens

And finally, Kitchener Centre Candidate Stacey Danckert spoke about the importance of public support for the creators who make our culture

WRGreens were honoured to be included in this valuable event.

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WRGreens are on YouTube!

Introducing the WRGreens YouTube Channel. Until recently the only thing we’ve had are playlists, mostly of WRGreens video online from previous elections.

But in December I made WRGreens very first short video about the GPC SGM adoption of the Indigenous suite of policy.

And I’ve also just posted a video of Bob Jonkman (Kitchener-Conestoga) presenting the round table report at the Waterloo Region Basic Income Pilot Consultation in Waterloo Region.

While it’s good the Provincial Liberals have expressed the intention of piloting Basic Income, it is important to engage as much as possible.  Done right, the evidence shows Basic Income would actually save the government money, in both direct (less bureaucracy) and indirect (healthier, better educated and more productive citizens), there is a very real concern that instead of doing it right, they’ll try to amplify the direct savings by making the basic Income amount too low, or making other cuts, to public housing, say.

If you haven’t already, please complete the online Basic Income Pilot Consultation survey (and encourage others to do so as well) — and be sure to recommend Waterloo Region as a pilot site!   Basic Income Waterloo Region has some compelling reasons why Waterloo Region would be an excellent Pilot choice.

Find out more from Basic Income Waterloo Region!
Find out more from Basic Income Waterloo Region!

And if you have a You Tube account, don’t forget to follow WRGreens ~ and share our videos too!

Bob Jonkman looking through the Basic Income handout.

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Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot: public survey

One of the most important Green Party of Canada campaign issues was the Guaranteed Livable Income.  The idea was piloted in Canada under the name “Mincome” under the first Prime Minister Trudeau.   What happened then is what happens all to often… the government fell and its successors had no interest in implementing policy based on their predecessor’s pilot project.   Here in Waterloo Region, we have our own Basic Income Waterloo Region advocacy group that’s part of a Canada-wide grassroots movement to make a basic income guarantee the next great innovation in social policy.

Basic Income Waterloo meets with Richard Walsh and Bob Jonkman at the Waterloo Greens Office during the 2015 election
Basic Income Waterloo meets with Richard Walsh and Bob Jonkman at the WRGreens 2015 campaign office.

The Ontario Liberal Government is considering running its own pilot program, and it would be enormously helpful to fill out their

Basic Income Pilot: public survey

While on the surface it may seem that such a program would be prohibitively expensive, ironically research shows the effect of a properly managed basic income guarantee is actually a savings to government, as well as a boost to small business and innovation.  Check out Basic Income Waterloo Region’s Frequently Asked Questions page.

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Learning Community: Guaranteed Livable Income

Learning Community
Fair Vote presentation at the Proportional Representation Learning Community (at Seven Shores)The second Waterloo Green Party Learning Community will kick off on Sunday June 5th at Seven Shores Urban Market & Cafe in Waterloo.

Proportional Representation was the topic we explored in the first Green Learning Community series hosted by the Green Party of Waterloo’s Kris Braun and Bryan Izzard.

Recently you’ve likely heard of Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI), sometimes called Basic Income, which was implemented in a Western town as a pilot program called  “Mincome” in the 1970’s.  Since the GLI is an important Green Party policy plank, this is a good opportunity to figure out what this radical social policy is all about.  As a learning community, we’ll set our own direction and investigate with open minds. Our series will likely have three sessions, but you’re welcome to come to any even if you miss others.

Our first session will feature a presentation from John Green from Basic Income Waterloo Region and brainstorming on what we’d like to learn for our next session.

hosted by the Green Party of Waterloo
hosted by the Green Party of Waterloo

The event is free but signing up is recommended (in case of updates, etc) ~ you can also sign up on the Facebook event page.

Sunday June 5th, 2016
1:30pm – 3:00pm
at Seven Shores Urban Market & Cafe

10 Regina St. N Unit 4, Waterloo, ON, N2J 2Z8

UPDATE:  The first learning community date is going to be rescheduled… I’ll update this again when I know when!

FINAL UPDATE
The first Basic Income Learning Community will still be held on Sunday, but in a different venue:

Sunday June 5th, 2016
1:30pm – 3:00pm
at
The Journey – a Christian Church
16 Eby St N, Kitchener, Ontario N2H 2V6

*note: this is not a religious meeting