NDP’s Monteith-Farrell Demands Answers for Basic Income Participants in Thunder Bay
QUEEN’S PARK, ON – During question period Thursday, NDP MPP Judith Monteith-Farrell demanded answers from Doug Ford for local participants of the Basic Income Pilot Project cancelled by the Ford government this summer.
“When did the government inform participants of the Basic Income pilot program that it was to end, and have they been informed when they will no longer receive the income that they count on?” asked Monteith-Farrell, MPP for Thunder Bay – Atikokan.
Monteith-Farrell told the legislature about Thunder Bay-Atikokan residents Sherry Mendowegan and Dawna George-Morrison who were being helped by the Basic Income program, but who have since heard from program administrators that their last payments will be at the end of August.
“Sherry Mendowegan wasn’t told by this government about this life altering decision, instead she learned over social media. Sherry had enrolled in school. She had plans to use Basic Income as a step out of poverty. Not anymore,” said Monteith-Farrell.
“Dawna George-Morrison, whose father was a World War II veteran and her mother a victim of a residential school, was on disability and caring for her 8-year-old grandson. On basic income, she could buy food—fruit, meat. Now she will have to go back to food banks.
“What does Doug Ford say to Sherry and Dawna?”
