The Gallery

Alberta Rose (aka Ingniq) believes in the potential of universal basic income and the positive impact that it would have on members of her community, family, and self in removing financial barriers to education, healthcare, and work. Having access to UBI would allow Alberta and other artists the opportunity to create more work through added stability and access to resources, such as studio space, and reduce the financial stress of paying rent, bills and student loans.

Universal basic income would help people like her retired father, who are living on a limited fixed income with sudden, unexpected expenses. People, like her brother, who was in a life-altering car accident and couldn’t work steadily afterwards, could access mental and physical health assistance. Single parents, like her friends, could access childcare so that they could work or go back to school, and people who have health issues and disabilities and cannot work would have secure housing and lower mental stress that financial instability causes.

In an ideal world, basic income would help me and my parents (who are seniors living on a very small pension) pay for the rising cost of items needed to survive: food, clothing, utilities, bills, rent, transportation, and medical supplies.

During difficult times, for example during the current pandemic, basic income would help pay for items such as masks, disinfectant, and hand sanitizer.

Basic income could also help people pay for further education. For example, it would help me pay for whatever tuition and other expenses my current bursary does not cover.

Basic income can make all my family happy with feeling of secure life, so I can try to do whatever I like to do, not whatever I should do.

Basic income means more money for clothing and art supplies.

With a basic income, everyone has their needs for food, shelter, and clothing covered by a basic and reliable amount of income. It is the idea of providing for all so we can concentrate on higher-level needs like education, spiritual growth, relationships, and development of skills and talents for the benefit of all.

Being on AISH and CPP Disability, Penny has her basic needs provided at a subsistence level. She can afford a very modest place to live and food to eat. Her medication costs are covered, and she does not need to worry if there will be income in upcoming months. She still needs to be extremely careful with her expenses, but she has breathing room in knowing her most basic necessities are covered. This has allowed her to explore her art at the pace that her health allows. It also helps Penny to deal with the depression and anxiety that extreme deprivation would deepen.

Basic income would really help with groceries, bills, and rent, especially for populations who may not receive enough support in their current programs. Some people I know who are on income support instead of AISH don’t have enough to live on.

Basic income means having the support to live well and to take care of myself. Simple pleasures, like buying fresh flowers, help to support my wellbeing.

I worry that support programs like basic income could change with the change of government, and that we use basic income as another support and not take away from the supports already in place and working.

Kathy has been poor. She’s also experienced “the good life.” Six days before her husband lost his executive job in oil and gas in 2014, they flew to Churchill, Manitoba, to see polar bears. During four years of unemployment and zero income, Kathy applied for jobs but could never secure enough income to pay the mortgage and groceries. Tom got a job as a bus driver, but COVID-19 closed the schools.

For Kathy, who may not qualify for AISH, a basic income could calm her fears of losing their house. Repeatedly, Kathy and Tom offer gratitude for the donated food they receive, but they would rather eat food they choose. Coronavirus gave the world a taste of their lives void of restaurant meals, movie theatres, and travel.

Through the ego-crushing experiences and her happy introduction to life on a basic income of sorts (through AISH), Melissa has been able to face past and present issues and form more of a psychological wholeness that she hadn’t achieved before. If those who have travelled down a road of painful development might get a respite through the tool of a universal basic income, and if some pain can even be prevented, it will surely prove its value.