In this paper, we apply GBA+ to two potentially transformative policy approaches—basic income and basic services—to consider their promise in the context of B.C.’s poverty reduction strategy. The core of our analysis is centred on evaluating how each proposal might address poverty in B.C....

In this paper, we present an overview of GBA+ and its central components, as well as a case study application of the framework to the question of poverty in the British Columbia context. We begin by tracing the theoretical foundations and development of SWC’s GBA+ tool, touching on the...

IA is the Government of British Columbia’s largest income assistance program, with an annual cost of just over $2B and reaching more than 8% of households. It is a program that is very complex to access and has complex eligibility rules and design features. It is also associated with a large...

This paper examines the system of income and social supports available to B.C. residents and how programs interact with each other. We observe that programs can interact through “eligibility interactions” and “benefit interactions”; that is, one program can affect eligibility for another...

An important component of the work to be completed by the British Columbia’s Expert Panel on Basic Income is to design simulations to look at how various basic income (BI) models could work in B.C. (B.C. Poverty Reduction, 2018). The intent of these simulations is to identify the potential...

This paper delves into the academic literature that exists that models, in detail, specific basic incomes for Canada to understand what main proposals already exist in the literature. This information will help inform the work of B.C.’s Expert Panel on Basic Income in two ways. First, it will...

We detail the political party commitments of a basic income in Canada over the last decade, a period of time in which we have seen renewed conversations about a basic income in Canada. We find that in all but one case the policy commitments lack any detail about design choices and no commitments...

Basic income is not a single, uniform policy, but rather a range of policy proposals that share certain principles while also differing along key dimensions. Based on the extensive literature related to basic income, we conceptualize basic income as a class of policy proposals, all of which...

In the last decade of the 20th century, the issues of poverty eradication in developing countries, particularly in Indonesia, have mostly been associated with the success stories of NGOs. Vakil (in Jordan & Tuijl, 2006: 8) defines NGOs as institutions which are characterized by...

One of the most basic assumptions of our legal system is that when two parties face off in court, the case will be adjudicated before a judge who is trained in the law. This Essay begins by showing that empirically, the assumption that most judges have legal training does not hold true for many...