This afternoon in the House of Assembly Labrador West MHA Jordan Brown introduced a Private Member’s Motion to strike an all-party committee to explore the concept of basic income and what that might look like in Newfoundland and Labrador. All parties voted to unanimously adopt the motion.
“I was very pleased that this motion was adopted, but also to see Opposition and Governing caucus members introduce friendly amendments to make this stronger,” Brown said today. “As we start to have discussions around what our province might look like in a post-pandemic world, it is important that we look at all of our options to make the most just and equitable society we can here at home”.
Although the potential benefits of adopting a basic income program are numerous, only a handful of jurisdictions around the world have implemented one, notably Finland and Spain. Both countries are quite different than NL, so it would be difficult to say how their experiences would translate to our province. The same reasoning goes for applying experiments with basic income from other provinces and the US to Newfoundland and Labrador. Each jurisdiction has a different population makeup, different economic structures, and different sets of existing social programs.
“We now have an opportunity to truly address common stressors that people in precarious income situations in our province face every single day,” Brown continued. “This is just the first step, and we have many more to take. I am looking forward to working with the all party committee to make this happen.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), 693-9172 (c), or EddyStCoeur@gov.nl.ca