Toronto Arts Council is joining arts and social justice advocates across the country calling on the federal government to support a Basic Income Guarantee.
The time for a federal basic income guarantee is now:
· Canada’s arts sector has been devastated by the pandemic. And, it is the individual creative artist who has paid the greatest price for this loss: hours worked in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector declined 36.6% in 2020 including 60.7% for those in the performing arts.
· Canada’s Employment Insurance program has not adapted to the realities of the gig economy or the self-employed and most freelance artists do not meet EI’s required criteria.
· Artists face income insecurity as a result of their dependence on precarious short-term contracts combined with their lack of access to benefits, paid sick leave, or employment insurance.
· Income precarity has always disproportionately affected vulnerable and marginalized communities including people with disabilities, LGBTQ2+, Black, Indigenous, people of colour, refugees and immigrants.