The pilot program, launched last year by the province’s Liberal government, was intended to last three years.
By the numbers: About 4,000 people in Ontario, Canada began getting monthly stipends last October to boost them to at least 75 percent of the poverty line. That translates to a minimum annual income of $17,000 in Canadian dollars (about $13,000 US) for single people, $24,000 for married couples.
The news: The province’s newly installed Conservative government announced this week that it will be cutting the trial short, breaking an election promise to keep it around. Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister in charge of social services, cited the high costs of the project ($150 million in Canadian dollars) as the reason for the cuts and said it was “clearly not the answer for Ontario families.” Data from the experiment was not provided to back up that statement, however. Earlier this year we spoke to some of the folks receiving the monthly stipends about how the free money had altered their lives.
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