Ontario Senator Kim Pate brought her pitch for a guaranteed basic liveable income to Whitehorse this week, giving a speech to a packed room of about 35 people at Yukonstruct on Tuesday.

Though it may sound radical to some, Pate said the idea of guaranteeing a basic income to people is a movement with lots of history, and lots of support.

“Anybody who believes it’s only me doing this would be dreaming in technicolour, because the reality is there’s a whole bunch of us in the Senate and in the House of Commons who are interested in this, and it really is about trying to build the momentum,” Pate told the crowd.

The idea is to give people a minimum income, with the amount provided decreasing as people earn more, up to a threshold at which people no longer get the payments.

There are several ways of accomplishing this, such as providing a set amount for everybody, or tying it to household income to avoid providing income to adults who still reside with their parents.

Though any type of plan will cost the government money, Pate argued this cost is offset by the society-wide savings that come from reducing poverty.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated the cost of providing a basic income of $16,989 per person and $24,027 for couples at $87.6 billion.

Literature provided by Pate showed that this cost can be reduced by setting the amounts based on overall household income.

Pate also said this doesn’t take into account the savings in government expenses that come from reducing poverty.

“(The parliamentary budget officer) has acknowledged that when he costed it, he didn’t take into account the savings that would come from it,” she said.

Pate also brought up many studies and statistics that show people given a basic income use that money to better themselves, rather than on things like drugs and alcohol, which some detractors say people will spend their money on.

“It’s not a lot of money to invest to actually get people out to provide a springboard out of poverty,” she said.

After graduating from law school, Pate spent the bulk of her professional career working to reform the legal and penal systems in Canada.

Her take is that more money should be put into social services, and less into corrections.

When Whitehorse was building its current correctional facility, Pate argued against putting money into the project, and instead diverting more money toward poverty reduction programs and housing.

A guaranteed basic liveable income is something she has advocated for as part of this and many other social causes.

In 2016, when appointed to the Senate, Pate said she wanted a guaranteed income to be the first issue she took on.

“A number of people who I really respect said, ‘ehh, don’t start there, people will think you’re a bit off the mark here; start with something closer to what you’ve been working on now,’” she said.

Pate waited three years and decided she couldn’t hold off any longer. And then the COVID pandemic hit.

“Suddenly it looked prophetic to some folks,” she said.

“It was the first time they realized how many people didn’t have secure jobs, didn’t have benefits, didn’t have all of the things that so many people, particularly in Parliament, take for granted.”

She began working on the issue with MP Leah Gazan of Winnipeg. Gazan introduced a bill in the House of Commons, while Pate simultaneously introduced a bill in the Senate.

So far, it has turned out that Pate’s bill is the one that gained traction faster — though it’s currently stalled in committee.

Because this is a private member’s bill and not a government bill, it can’t be something that actually costs the government money.

As a result, the bill is not a specific plan.

“Otherwise, the bill will be thrown out before we even get started,” she said. “So, we developed what we call a framework.”

To go further, Pate said she would like to have the Liberal Party add it to its actual platform.

“Many of the Liberal MPs are supportive, many cabinet ministers are supportive, but it is not an official position,” she said. “One of our objectives is to try and make it part of the election platform for every party.”

Some progress is being made on that front.

In December, Yukon MP Brendan Hanley introduced a petition to urge the government to support a guaranteed basic income demonstration project on Prince Edward Island. This had been recommended by a P.E.I. government special committee on poverty.

Though the types of guaranteed income plans vary, Pate said there is lots of misinformation floating around about the idea, such as people thinking it would suddenly mean the cancellation of pensions.

She said the attacks show there is progress being made, and now opponents are doing everything they can to undermine the movement.

“The positive of that to me is that it is getting traction,” she said.

Pate was able to joke around a bit about the conspiracy theories surrounding a guaranteed basic income.

“I was responding to some emails (Tuesday) morning about ‘was I really part of the World Economic Forum and is this a communist plot?’” she said.