Resolving $200M Ontario basic income class action lawsuit could take ‘years’: lawyer

The lead lawyer in a class-action lawsuit seeking millions for the early termination of Ontario’s basic income pilot program admits it could be several more years before the matter is resolved.

Cavalluzzo LLP lawyer Stephen Moreau says the fact that the province agreed to hand over $320,000 to cover legal fees on Tuesday “the other way” seems to hint that there won’t be any obvious deal coming soon.

“This started five years ago. How long will it take? Possibly more years,” Moreau said.

In 2019, four Lindsay, Ont., residents who were signed up for the pilot filed a $200 million class-action lawsuit against Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government over the cancellation.

The lawsuit alleges a “breach of contract” after the three-year, $150 million pilot program was introduced by the previous Liberal government in April 2017.

In late March, a judge certified the class-action lawsuit.

“They were allowed to cancel it early,” Moreau admitted. “They just had to pay the contract price…and that was whether to continue or not continue with the program and make the payments that they had promised to these people.”

Moreau says the next step will be the discovery process in which he hopes to obtain copies of all of Ontario’s documents “to see inside” what the Conservatives were thinking when they abandoned the initiative in 2018.

“And then we’ll be able to examine some representative witnesses from Ontario to find out more about what happened,” Moreau said.

The pilot was launched in 2017 under the Ontario Liberal government to complement a poverty reduction strategy that already offered financial assistance through Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Program and the Ontario Child Benefit.

Initially, about 6,000 Ontarians worked in Hamilton, Lindsay and Thunder Bay and received a basic monthly income (up to $17,000 a year for a single person) in exchange for periodically completing surveys and agreeing to be part of a research project to determine whether Fixed payments could be implemented in the future.

In 2018, Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services, then led by Nepe MP Lisa McLeod, insisted the program was not helping people become “independent contributors to the economy.”

“It’s really a disincentive to get people back on track,” McLeod said.

“When you encourage people to accept money without conditions, you don’t really send the message that I think our ministry and our government want to send. “We want to get people back on track and productive.”

Hamilton photographer Jessie Golem joined Moreau at Queen’s Park on Tuesday to reiterate how the pilot made her feel safe enough to take the risk of starting a new business after getting out of a “financially abusive relationship.”

At the time, he said his typical work week was between 60 and 80 hours before he could tap into the basic income program and stop working multiple dead-end jobs.

“I was tired of working constantly and still barely being able to afford the cost of living,” Golem said.

“For having an employment contract, not having benefits, sick days or vacations.”

Although it lasted just over a year, McMaster University researchers were able to find notable improvements in a variety of health outcomes in the majority of the 200 respondents.

The study found that “many beneficiaries reported improvements in their physical and mental health, labor market participation, food security, housing stability, financial situation, and social relationships.”

They also found that beneficiaries used health services less frequently.

Overall, 79 percent of respondents said they felt a partial or substantial improvement in their health. And when it comes to work, the survey found that “the majority of employees before the pilot reported working while receiving basic income. Many reported that they had moved to better-paying and more secure jobs.”

Moreau says no one knows if the province will reach a settlement with the plaintiffs, as he says he has received little dialogue related to that outcome.

“It has to be a reasonable agreement, obviously, not just any agreement,” he said.

“What is the probability? I mean, if you can try to contact the government on the phone and ask them, I would love to hear their response on that.”

In an email sent to Global News last month following certification of the class action, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said it does not comment on cases before the courts.

– with files from The Canadian Press, Mike Le Couteur and Kamyar Razavi

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