Ontario Basic Income Network (OBIN) is a coalition committed to seeing Basic Income implemented in Ontario. It's a bold vision of dignity and justice for everyone, regardless of work status—and we're inviting you to join our growing community of advocates.

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OBIN Basic Income Statement of Principles

Why basic income?
OBIN believes that a basic income that adheres to the principles below will reduce poverty, enhance economic equality, and help build a more just society and sustainable economy. OBIN also believes that a basic income will help to combat racism and colonialism, advance gender equality, and promote the full social inclusion of marginalized groups in Ontario and Canada.

To achieve this, we believe that any Basic Income program includes these core values:
· Adequacy: It’s enough money to have one’s basic needs met
· Autonomy: It offers people more life choices
· Dignity: There is no stigma attached to accessing it
· Non-conditionality: It is provided with no (or very few) strings attached
· Universality of Access: Anyone who needs it, gets it

Read our Statement of Principles here.

Download as a Word document here.

Objective

OBIN works to increase public understanding of and lobby governments for the implementation of basic income by building and strengthening the network of advocates in Ontario, as outlined in the Framework document below.

OBIN is working to make that dream a reality. Continuing the storied legacy of Canadian Basic Income advocacy stretching back to the 1970s, OBIN was born from over a dozen local advocacy groups' desire for coordination to create change across the province. Our members include advocates, professors, lawyers, policy-makers, business leaders, civic leaders, those with lived experience of poverty, students, and community activists.

Read our detailed Background Story.

We invite you to Follow Us and Take Action with us.

The Structure of OBIN

OBIN is a voluntary association of individuals and groups across Ontario. The structure of OBIN and its direction are fully defined in the Basis of Affiliation.

OBIN's overall actions are steered by a Co-ordinating Team (C-Team) composed of a facilitator, five co-ordinators, and co-coordinators for each of those positions.

The C-Team appoints topical teams for different needs and projects on a short-term or long-term basis as required.

OBIN's local activities are organized and carried out by local Community Action Groups. A list of these actions groups can be found on the Take Action page, and members are encouraged to join their local group, or form one if none yet exists.

Coalition Canada

OBIN is a proud member of Coalition Canada: Basic Income/Revenue de base, Canada’s cross-country coalition of experienced Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) activists.

Annual Convention and General Meeting

A short history of OBIN Annual General Meetings

A network of Basic Income advocates in Ontario has been building since 2013 - the year that today's Canadian Basic Income movement began to take off. The first local action group to form was the Kingston Action Group for a Basic Income Guarantee. In 2015 the Kingston group organized the first annual meeting of Ontario advocates and that meeting was held in Kingston in November that year.

The second annual meeting was held in November 2016 in Peterborough and was organized by the Peterborough Basic Income Network. At that meeting, it was agreed that a provincial network group should be more formally established and, soon after, the Ontario Basic Income Network (OBIN) was named as such.

On November 4th, 2017 the 3rd annual organizing meeting of OBIN was held, this time in Lindsay (one of the three sites of the Ontario government's now-cancelled 3-year Basic Income Pilot Project). The meeting was preceded the day before by a public event organized by OBIN, also held in Lindsay. One of the best developments arising from those two days was the adoption of the Lindsay Declaration for a Progressive Basic Income.

In the spring of 2018, individual advocates involved with OBIN agreed to a new Network structure. The structure is based on the concept of individual advocates and local action groups which choose to ‘affiliate’ with each other (within the structure), and to help carry out the work of OBIN. The work of OBIN is now guided by a Coordinating Group including a Facilitator and five Coordinators responsible for Network Development, Internal Relations, External Relations, Promotions and Communications, and Special Projects. The 2018 AGM was held in Hamilton in conjunction with the 2018 NABIG Congress in May.

OBIN held its 5th Annual Convention and General Meeting on Saturday, 21 September 2019 at the Multi-Faith Centre in Toronto. Programs included Building a Youth Network for Basic Income in Ontario; Building on the Ontario Basic Income Pilot; reporting in from local OBIN groups and activists; and highlights of provincial work of OBIN. The Annual General Meeting, held in the afternoon, offered an opportunity for the presentation of reports, Q & A, and discussion.

Since that time, the Annual General Meeting of OBIN has been held on Zoom with an engagement event following the meeting.