Considerations for Basic Income as a COVID-19 Response

When the federal government created the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to help Canadians who had lost their jobs in the COVID-19 lockdown, it sparked renewed interest in the idea of a basic income. However, many policy questions need to be discussed and resolved in order to assess a basic income and compare it to alternative forms of social support. Careful and thorough consideration of these matters is vital in deciding whether a basic income should be implemented, and if so, how it should be done and indeed what form it should take.