Ireland is implementing basic income for artists. Could Canada do something similar?

Eleanor O'Donovan says Ireland's basic income program for artists has completely changed her life and work for the better.

The Dublin-based multidisciplinary artist was part of a three-year pilot program in Ireland that provided 2,000 artists and creative workers with a weekly stipend of €325 ($528.90 CAD) between 2022 and 2025.

“It’s pretty huge,” O’Donovan said. How it happens guest host Saroja Coelho. “It has changed my work and my overall well-being.”

Now, Ireland decided to make the program permanentstating that its benefits to society far outweigh the costs to the government.

Basic income advocates in Canada are celebrating the announcement, hoping it will provide momentum for the adoption of a similar — and more widespread — program in that country.

But, despite evidence from the Parliamentary Budget Office that a basic income can reduce poverty, EUOnomists are warning Canadians not to hold their breath.

Ireland says program delivers value for money

A basic income is any policy in which the government provides unconditional cash transfers to people to meet basic needs.

In 2022, Ireland launched a Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot program to help the arts sector recover from losses suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This scheme is the envy of the world and a huge achievement for Ireland and needs to be made forward-looking and sustainable,” Patrick O'Donovan, Ireland's culture minister, told reporters last week as his government unveiled its 2026 budget.

The pilot project, although expensive, provided great bang for the buck, he said.

General, the government says it has spent 105 million euros ($170.8 million CAD) at BIA. But an external report from Alma Economics found that these costs were offset by increased audience engagement with the arts, increased tax revenue, reduced welfare benefits, and improved psychological well-being of participants.

Taking these benefits into account, the report put the net cost of the pilot at €72 million ($117.1 million CAD).

“From a financial perspective, it's extremely rewarding,” Eleanor O'Donovan said. “But beyond that, I think there is something subtle that art offers to culture and society at large that is harder to quantify, but I think is still extremely valuable.”

Canadian artists want basic income for all

A basic income is something that artists in Canada have been calling for for a long time.

In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, 75,000 Canadian artistswriters, technicians and artists, organizations and trade unions launched a campaign and public letter to the federal government calling for a universal basic income guarantee.

Now they hope news from Ireland can serve as a springboard for a movement here at home.

“We are delighted. can I say? said Craig Berggold, a spokesman for the Ontario Basic Income Network, the organization behind the campaign.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult for people not only to live, but also to make art.”

While basic income has overwhelming support in the creative industries, Berggold says he and his colleagues are advocating for something more comprehensive than Ireland's BIA – a guaranteed basic income for all Canadians who earn below a certain threshold.

In a report published this summer, the Parliamentary Budget Office, the federal government's fiscal arm, found that the guaranteed A federal basic income program could reduce poverty. in Canada up to 40 percent.

“Poverty is costly to people and government.”ent,” said Berggold, an artist from Kingston, Ont.

Berggold says a basic income reduces the costs of welfare systems that prevent recipients from living with dignity and independence.

“It gives people the opportunity to make choices so they can improve their lives, rather than having the system that we have now, which is surveillance-based and tests you,” he said.

“What we're looking for is a universal basic income that provides a floor that people can stand on. I always like to say that I'm not interested in the net, the social safety net that people have to fall into. I want a floor that we can stand on.”

Economists say it's unlikely

Provinces in Canada have experimented with basic income programs with varying degrees of success.

In 2017, the government of Kathleen Wynne, then premier of Ontario, launched a basic income pilot for 4,000 low-income participants. Bye well received by participantsit was repealed by Premier Doug Ford in 2018.

PEI And Newfoundland and Labrador also pilot programs, and lawyers and politicians in PEI are calling on the federal government to work with the province to implement a universal basic income program on the island.

At the federal level, the NDP pushed for a guaranteed living basic income through a private member's bill that failed to pass the House of Commons last fall. A similar bill with the support of Senator Kim Pateremains in limbo in the Senate.

But Mostafa Askari, chief economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy, doesn't think a basic income in Canada will happen nationally anytime soon.

He said Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government is focused on navigating the ongoing trade war with the United States and finding ways to reduce its impact on Canada.

“I think the government, at least for now, is moving away from social services and social protection issues and focusing more on the economy, growth and sovereignty of Canada,” Askari, a former deputy parliamentary budget officer, told CBC.

He says there is also the possibility that a basic income would disincentivize work at a time when the economy needs more employment.

“This is definitely not the right time for the government to be considering something like this,” he said.

Bergold, however, disagrees.

“I understand that people are focused on tariff wars, but I also hear the government saying that they want these wars. nation building programs“,” he said. “I think a federal basic income program could be a nation-building program.”