By Karen Kavanagh, Regional Representative
     I am thrilled to inform you about Guaranteed Liveable Income (AKA Basic Income or Universal Basic Income etc.). This is something people at St. Thomas United Church, Calgary, have been involved with for many years. The support for Guaranteed Liveable Income (GLI) has grown exponentially. There has been a group of 50 Senators, the Moderator of the United Church, the Anglican Church, a group of Business People and thousands of citizens that have written letters of support to the Liberal Government.  The pandemic and the creation of CERB has shown us how the government can support people who need it.  Unfortunately, CERB did not reach all of the people that need it and many people are in desperate situations trying to survive.
      I do not know how much you already know about GLI so I will refer you to some excellent places to learn more. The United Church website is HERE, there is also Basic Income Canada Network,  Basic Income Alberta, and business groups called UBIworks.ca.
      The United Church of Canada GLI group is planning a vigil on Thursday, April 8th at 12:30 in front of as many MP’s offices as possible.  A group of us are planning to go to Pat Kelly’s office in Calgary as he is the MP for the area where St. Thomas is located.  The date was chosen as it is the day before both the Liberal and NDP National Conventions.
     We are also asking anyone who thinks that GLI is important for Canada to write and ask their MP, Finance Minister, and Prime Minister to support the program.  If you would like help with a template to send out to people in the CWR, please ask, as we have many different letters and information about how to easily get addresses  for all of these people. 
      Our ministers have done 3 Sunday service messages about Basic Income and they are on Youtube.  If you are having difficulty accessing them, I can easily get you the information. Email Karen: