Create a Guaranteed Livable Income Program

Imagine the possibilities and security a Guaranteed Livable Income would bring: To be able to care for a loved one. To be able to return to school. To be able to weather today’s economic uncertainty with dignity.

  —Right Rev. Dr. Kimberly Heath, Moderator 

A growing movement of religious leaders, senators, politicians, community leaders, organizations, and more are calling for a Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI). On March 18, 2026, The United Church of Canada urged the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance to support Bill S-206: An Act to develop a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income through the Senate. The letter from the General Secretary and the Moderator is available under Downloads.

The United Church of Canada first advocated for a guaranteed annual income in 1972, and since 2020 has re-ignited efforts with the leadership of recent Moderators and a national United Church GLI network.

Take Action

Your voice is needed! Call on members of the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance to support Bill S-206 and move it to the third reading in the Senate. Ask them to establish the first national framework for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income for all persons over the age of 17 across Canada. Share an example of the struggles you or members of your community are facing and how this policy would make a difference.

What Is Guaranteed Livable Income?

A guaranteed livable income (GLI) is a payment to individuals or families by government that covers the cost of basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and community participation) and is not conditional on meeting employment criteria to qualify for the benefit. It ensures everyone an income adequate for meeting basic needs, allowing all people to live with dignity regardless of work status. Such a program would be part of the national fabric of services that preserve and protect Canadians; or, as Jesus put it, “to love our neighbours as ourselves.”

Rather than have a rules-based, bureaucratically driven application process (during which applicants must prove they are "really poor" before being approved), all Canadian citizens are ensured an automatic top-up when their income collapses for whatever reason. The incomes would be unconditional, automatic, non-withdrawable, individual, and guaranteed under the law.

More and more people are unhoused, living in inadequate housing, and forced to choose between food and rent. Even more live with the gnawing anxiety that one emergency could change everything. We are living in a polycrisis where economic, climate, political, health, and food crises occur simultaneously and amplify each other. The worst impacts are felt by people who already have the least resources and experience systemic discrimination such as ableism, classism, heterosexism, racism, and sexism. People who live within the intersections of multiple discriminations are particularly marginalized.

A guaranteed livable income is an effective way to support the reduction and elimination of poverty and insecurity, the narrowing of extreme income and wealth inequalities, shared citizenship, and improved democratic and economic functioning.