Individuals who face a sudden job loss or drop in income often discover that Canada’s social safety net is incomplete and, for many, insufficient. As a result, gaps in income support programs can lead to more persistent poverty and poorer health outcomes, among other things, which only further increase the costs of public programs.
In recent years, some provinces have been exploring the idea of introducing a guaranteed minimum income. What has work in Quebec, and more recently in Prince Edward Island, uncovered about the potential of this policy idea? This was the question addressed by the Jacques-Parizeau Research Chair in Economic Polic at its lunchtime conference on April 4, 2024, hosted by renowned experts Benoît Robidoux and Raquel Fonseca.